Day By Day
by We'reNotGonnaPayRent
Summary: The Croatoan Virus has swept the nation. Sam and Dean have managed to establish a camp open to any survivors. They've managed to survive thus far, but the camp's doctor has a new idea for a vaccine requires Sam's blood. On top of that, Castiel is falling down the rabbit hole quickly, and Dean might not be able to save him. {Hurt!Sam Junkie!Cas Protective!Dean} AU.
1. Welcome To The Jungle

Each day was the same: Wake up, eat something, check on Cas, report for duty with Sam. He had been used to the same old routine for about a year now. His life had started to blur together into one long string of days where one day never differed from the next. It was getting to the point where he couldn't tell the days apart from each other. He couldn't remember if they had eaten chicken for dinner last week or a month ago.

Before his life had turned into the wild and crazy mess that it was, he could remember nearly every detail of every day. He remembered the cases him, his dad, and his brother had taken on when he was young. He remembered the day his brother went to college, and the day he came back. He could remember his dad dying. He remembered his brother dying, he remembered going through literal hell to bring him back. He remembered going on hunts for Bobby with Sam. He remembered going to the roadhouse and seeing Ellen and Jo.

He remembered how Sam used to smile and research cases on his laptop. He remembered picking on him for eating salads all the time. He remembered giving people Bobby's phone number, and having Bobby pretend to be some big bad FBI agent. He clearly remembered the apocalypse, and the reason that he was in this situation in the first place. But most of all, he remembered Cas.

He remembered Cas because while everything had changed, Castiel had changed the most. Sam was still his brother; he was still the same guy, just a little more focused, a little more cold. Bobby was still Bobby, the go-to guy, the one who told you where to go, what to do, and how to be. Ellen was still taking care of everyone, sort of acting like a mother hen. She'd taught herself how to be a make shift nurse for the doctor they'd been lucky enough to find. And Jo, she was still following Sam and Dean around, acting like the little sister they never wanted but are grateful to have. But Castiel...

Castiel was a shell of his former self. He had taken to drugs, sex and his newly acquired skills of sarcasm and lying to make his way through. Hell, Dean didn't even know if he was an angel anymore, he showed no signs of having any mojo. He was given jobs to do, but he'd refuse, forcing Dean to do his dirty work for him. Well, he didn't force Dean, but Dean felt the need to cover for Cas. Surely Bobby knew this was happening, but he turned the other way.

No one wanted to admit that the angel had fallen.

So Dean chose to focus on the angel he used to know. The one who never understood references, who was scared of female contact, who was hands down the biggest badass anyone could ever know. If Dean admitted to himself that that angel was gone, he'd have to kill whatever replaced him.

* * *

"We're runnin' low on food so I'm gonna send out five of you to get somethin' from one of the towns nearby. It should be a grab-n-go so it'll be a great time to get some of you trainees out there for the first time." Bobby explained to the group.

Since the Croatoan virus started to spread, they had started up a safe haven open to anyone willing to fight. Initially it was just Sam, Dean, Bobby, Cas, and a few others they had picked up on the street but it had expanded substantially since Ellen and Jo arrived with more people. Eventually they sent out recruitment teams to go and find other survivors to join them. There is always strength in numbers.

"I'll go," Dean volunteered, as per usual.

Sam raised his hand, "Me too,"

"No, Sam, you need to sit this one out. It'll be easy, let your brother handle it," Ellen said, shaking her head.

Sam raised an eyebrow, but decided to keep his mouth shut. Dean on the other hand was not so quiet about it, he didn't like to be away from Sam, "Ellen, that's ridiculous, there's no reason he shouldn't go out there. Its easy, he's not hurt and-"

"Trust me Dean." Ellen interrupted him, crossing her arms. Dean let it go.

"I'll go then," Jo raised her hand.

After a few seconds of hesitation, Ellen nodded, "Alright, three more?"

"How 'bout me?" Castiel asked, his voice had a playful tone in it, almost like he knew he would get turned down.

"Are you clean?" Bobby questioned.

Cas scoffed, "No,"

"Then no, anyone else?" He looked around, "Joseph? Allison? How 'bout you two?" They agreed quickly, "Alright, good and, let's see... Derek? You've shown some potential, you think you're ready for the real deal?"

Derek smiled, "Hell yeah,"

Ellen clapped her hands together, "Great, now that that's settled, this meeting is dismissed. Those of ya'll going out, start getting together and devising a plan. Get moving people." As people started to file out she called out, "I need Sam, Dean, Chuck, and Mark to come talk to me,"

Chuck was always real good with the people in the settlement. He had a way with words no one else seemed to posses. It made since, he was a writer and a prophet of the Lord after all. Words were kind of his thing.

Mark on the other hand, he was all business. He was a doctor who they had found hiding with his family in a shed a few miles out. He was a certified trauma surgeon and had some pretty impressive triage skills under his belt. While he worked quickly and efficiently, his bedside manner wasn't amazing. But in times like this, petty things like bedside manner didn't seem to matter.

"What do you need Ellen?" Chuck asked.

"Mark and I were thinking and we realized that we'd lost more people to the virus than we had anything else," Ellen explained.

Mark nodded, "This is true, we've been keeping records, and most of the fatalities, 78% to be exact, are coming from people who come dead from the outside because they'd been infected."

Dean shook his head, "Thanks for the info Captain Obvious, but that's not surprising anyone. We're in the middle of the friggin' apocalypse in case you didn't notice."

"Here him out Dean," Ellen replied.

"We've decided to try and come up with some sort of vaccine, a way to prevent the virus from happening to any of us. It would make going out of the walls easier," Mark said.

Dean furrowed his eyebrows, "Why the hell are you telling us this? Start working on it,"

"That's the thing. Vaccines are made by introducing an inactivated version of the virus to a person's immune system. The immune system in a way 'sees' the virus and can build up antibodies to protect itself against it. It would be difficult and very dangerous to try to get a person infected with the Croatoan virus into the camp, and even if we could, it would be very difficult to deactivate the virus, so we were thinking-"

"You were thinking," Ellen corrected him.

"Yes, _I_ was thinking, that since Sam is already immune to the virus..." He seemed to be afraid of finishing his sentence.

"You want my blood don't you?" Sam asked.

Dean tensed up immediately, "No, definitely not. You're not taking his blood. He's not a human blood bag."

"It would only be a little bit, just to test the theory out." Mark reasoned.

"You can take some," Sam said rolling up his sleeve.

Dean shook his head, "No! Sammy, no. We don't even know if this is gonna work,"

"Well we've gotta try. Dean I started all of this. I made this happen. If I can try and help stop it, I'm going to." Sam continued to roll his sleeve up.

Chuck butted in, "Okay, let's say you get a vaccine together. How are you going to test it?"

Mark smiled and put his hands on Chuck's shoulders, "That, my friend, is where you come in. I need you to talk this over with everyone else and try and find a volunteer to have it tested out on."

At this point, Dean was livid. Not only was this dick trying to take Sam's blood, but he was going to knowingly put one or more of the settlement's people in danger. These people weren't just strangers, they were his friends. Hell he'd even go as far as calling some of them family. These people were all any of them had. As far as he knew, they were all that was left of the world. Or at least all that was left of his world. Even if there were other people out there somewhere it was likely they would never find them.

Dean looked to Chuck, hoping he'd disagree with the idea.

"I'll get with Carlotta, if I remember correctly, she was a psychologist. If I do get a volunteer I'll have her go over everything with them and have her make sure they're volunteering for the right reasons." Chuck nodded, "If it works, maybe you can work on getting a cure." He said, only half jokingly.

Mark was grinning, "Perfect, alright Dean, you're the only one left. Are you good with what's happening?"

Dean was unsure, "What does Bobby think of all this?"

Ellen shrugged, "He's not the biggest fan, but he can't see a good reason to be against it,"

"I can. We're going to test out an unnecessary vaccine out on a person who'll die if it doesn't work. I think that's a damn good reason to go against it,"

Mark pursed his lips, "If we weren't in the middle of what you call 'the friggin' apocalypse', I'd agree with you, but these are desperate times. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, even if it doesn't settle well with you,"

Dean nodded. That was the first bit of sensible knowledge to come out of the doctor's mouth, "Fine. But I wanna be there for everything. I wanna be here when you draw the blood, when your making the vaccine, and when you test it out. These are my people Doc, you better not screw this up,"

* * *

 **Okay, so this came to my head. I know there's a lot of these Croatoan AUs, but I got the vaccine idea and I had to write it. Anyway here it is. Cas is pretty screwed up right now, you'll see more of that in future chapters, I tried to include him a bit more at the beginning, but this chapter does focus more on introducing the vaccine thing. I certainly hope nobody has already done this, that would suck.**

 **Anyway, hope you liked it. Plus I'm doing a really shitty job at writing the characters, I know, but I'll try and get a hang of it. I'm hoping that the next chapters will be longer and more interesting.**

 **Well, thanks for reading! Feel free to complement or criticize me in the form of a review! Love you guys! XOXO**


	2. Livin' On a Prayer

As they stepped out of the meeting hut, Dean grabbed Sam's shoulder and pulled him aside. He didn't like the idea of the vaccine. He knew if it did actually work, that that doctor would have to take more of Sam's blood. Blood loss isn't something to take lightly. There's no telling how much blood it would take to supply the whole camp with a vaccine. And there's no telling how much that will impact Sam. The camp doesn't have the resources to care for a person with major blood loss.

On top of that, the vaccine would be highly sought after by everyone in the camp. Getting the virus seemed to be everyone's biggest nightmare. People would kill for protection against it. Mark would have to produce the stuff fast, and Dean was terrified that Sam didn't have enough blood in him to keep up.

"Sam, I don't like this idea at all,"

"Its just a little bit of blood, come on man I've been through worse,"

"Yeah, but you didn't have a choice then. We don't need this vaccine to keep living, we've been doing just fine without it," Dean crossed his arms.

Sam rolled his eyes, "Oh come on, do you know how much easier a vaccine could make going out to get simple things like food. We'd just have to avoid being killed, not being infected."

"Well then how do we know this doctor is even the real deal. We're just going off his word. He looks kinda young to be some world renown surgeon,"

"Okay now you're just being stupid. You heard him, he knows what he's talking about,"

"Have we even seen him do anything? I mean he's been here for over a year and he hasn't saved anyone's life yet!"

Sam rolled his eyes again, "Quit being paranoid and go meet with your team. If you guys don't leave soon, I'm afraid Derek's going to pee his pants,"

Dean looked over to his team. They seemed to be talking about the task at hand. They were huddled fairly close like a sports team would be. Jo seemed to be laying out the plan. Sam was right, he needed to get over there and figure out what was going on. He glared at Sam, but decided to try and lighten the mood, "I'll go with my team if you get Cas off drugs," They decided a long time ago that the Cas they knew was gone. The only thing they could do now was joke about it. It somehow hurt less to pretend it wasn't that big of a deal.

Sam smirked, "I'll see what I can do about that,"

"See you later, bitch,"

"See you, jerk,"

* * *

Dean approached his team, "Alright, what's the deal?"

Jo smiled, she had thought he was going to come and take over the whole mission before she got explain her plan, "There's a little town about two miles up. I think it's called Harrisburg, or Harrisville, something like that. Anyway, we haven't hit it up yet so unless somebody else found it first, it should have tons of supplies."

Dean nodded, "Does it have any grocery stores?"

"Yeah, there's one. From what I remember, it was a chain store, so it should have foods with lots of preservatives." Jo gave a short laugh.

"Sounds good to me, let's head there first. If we don't find anything we'll go to our normal place and clean out whats left there," Dean looked to Derek, the scared little trainee, "What are the rules for once we get out there,"

Derek took a quick breath, "Uh, don't talk unless it's absolutely necessary. If you do talk, keep it as quiet as possible. Follow all orders from the group leader, which I guess is you. Stay with the group unless you're told to split up. Don't go anywhere alone, and if you do, don't lie about it."

"Good, let's head out,"

The five of them started heading for the gate. When Sam and Dean established the camp, the first thing they did was build walls. They helped with security. They built one gate at the front of the camp. They decided to only have one so it would be easier to guard if they ever needed to.

Only a few people knew why the world was the way was. Sam, Dean, Bobby, Cas, Chuck, Ellen, and Jo. The rest were just lucky civilians wondering why the world turned bad. They knew that there was a virus. They didn't know that the virus was released by Lucifer. They knew that it was some sort of apocalypse. They didn't know that it was the Book of Revelations, biblical, battle of the archangels, end of the world apocalypse. They especially didn't know that Sam and Dean started the whole thing. What they don't won't hurt them.

Dean opened the gate and let his team out, making everyone was accounted for. As the mission leader he had a checklist he needed to go through before they set off, "Alright, everyone have their weapons?" The group nodded, showing him their guns and knives, "Everyone ate and got water?" The group nodded again, "Alright, good, lastly, everyone went to the bathroom right?" He always added that one in to release any tension. The group smiled and nodded, "Good because once we leave, there's no going back. You'll have to pop a squat,"

He shut the gates and started to walk, motioning for the rest to follow him.

They fell into a line : Dean, Jo, Allison, Derek, Joseph. Jo appreciated having Dean as their group leader. He made everything seem like a walk in the park. He knew how to keep everyone calm, but still alert. She admired him for that.

They walked the two miles in about 30 minutes, running into no troubles along the way. When the team reached the town, it didn't take long to locate the store. It was still locked up tight, it took some work to break into it, but Jo was right, there was plenty of food to take.

Dean smiled, this was good, "Alright, Joseph, Derek - you and me are going to focus on water and any other drinks we can find. Allison, Jo, you guys get food, any kind of granola bars or cereal, anything not spoiled. After you finish with that go get other supplies, toilet paper, bandages, feminine products..." He hated having to talk about feminine products, "Oh, and get some meds for the doc, nothing too terribly strong please we have an addict who knows how to pick locks," Dean thought of Castiel. Mark had all of the medication locked up but all Castiel needs to get in is a toothpick or a twig.

Dean headed to where the drinks would be with Derek and Joseph. He'd been on a few runs with Joseph, he knew he was strong. Derek looked pretty big, he hoped it was all muscle. Dean picked up a peice of hardwood and started putting cases of watter bottles on it. Derek and Joseph followed his lead. Dean made sure to put a case of blue Gatorade on for Sam. His little brother had taken a liking to the stuff since the virus had taken over.

Suddenly the boys heard commotion a few aisles over. Both Joseph and Derek turned to Dean.

Dean stood up straight. He put a finger to his lips and pulled out his angel blade. He'd made sure most everyone had one, he didn't know what the angels were up to, but the blade could kill most anything so he figured it would be everyone's best deffense. Of course, the civilians wondered why they all had to have the same knife, but no one questioned it. A weapon is a weapon.

He walked quietly to the aisle that the noise had come from. He peaked in.

The first thing he saw was Jo and Allison ducking behind a box of bath loofas. Then he looked farther down the aisle and saw three Croats looking around for what he could only assume was their next victom.

He turned to the two boys behind him and mouthed - 'Croat' and put up three fingers.

Derek's eyes widened. He started taking fast breathes. This would be his first experience with the damn things.

Joseph took a deep breath and mouthed - 'Attack?'

Dean hesitated for a moment. He knew the only way out would be to kill the Croats. He nodded. He motioned for the three to step back. This way he could quietly tell them the game plan.

They went back three aisles, hopefully out of the Croats earshot. Dean started to explain the plan, "The quickest way to kill these basterds is a stab in the head. Its effective and they die fast. There's three of them and three of us. We go and attack first, be aggressive and make the first move. The girls should come and help us, but don't expect them to. When you go to-"

He was interupted by Allison's voice, "Dean look out!"

He looked over his shoulder to see the Croats barreling towards them, "Change of plans, just fight!"

Dean met with one of the Croats, his knife looking for its target. The Croat was fast, but Dean was just a little bit faster. His knife found its way into the Croat's brain within ten seconds. He glanced at the other two, deciding who he needed to help more. Joseph seemed to be losing his battle, but Allison and Jo were making their way to fight with him. He took that as his que to help Derek.

He turned his attention to the kid just in time to see the Croat dig its nails into his wrist. Derek yelled out in pain.

Dean swung his knife into the Croat's head, effectively beheading and killing it. Blood splattered on his shirt but he couldn't bring himself to care, there aas still one more Croat alive.

Within about four seconds of fighting the Croat, Jo realized that Joseph, Allison, and she made a damn good team. Allison and Joseph had pinned the monster to the ground and Jo rammed the butt end of her gun into its head several times. She smirked, proud of herself when she realized it was dead. She looked up to see Dean watching her. She was ecstatic that he saw. She had always had a huge desire to make him proud. Maybe that was due to her tiny crush one him, but that's not important.

"Well done you guys," Dean clapped softly.

Derek spoke up, "Dean it got in me,"

Dean turned to Derek, "What?"

"The blood... It got in my cut..."

Allison put a hand over her mouth, "Oh my god..." She whispered.

Dean shook head. This wasn't fair. He was just a kid. He'd only been out on one mission. This wasn't fair damnit. How did this even happen?

Then he realized it...

Blood flew everywhere when he took the off of that son of a bitch. He wasn't even thinking about the thing cutting Derek he just went in to kill it. It was his fault.

He looked to the rest of the group, speechless.

Derek started to panic, "It's in me. Oh my god." He couldn't breath, "This is it!"

Seeing that Dean wasn't going to be the one to pull the trigger on the kid, Joseph pulled out his gun. He aimed it at Derek's head.

Derek closed his eyes, ready for the bullet.

Dean shook his head, "No! Don't shoot!"

"Dean, we have to he's infected," Joseph tried to rationalize with him.

"Let me try something. If it doesnt work, then you shoot him, but just let me try it."

Joseph lowered the gun, "Go ahead,"

Dean kneeled next to Derek, "Okay kid, this is gonna hurt like a son of a bitch, but it could save your life. Are you going to let me do this?"

Derek nodded, "Yes, just d-do it,"

Dean leapt into action. He took off his belt as fast as he could and tied it tightly around Derek's arm, creating a make shift tourniquet. Then he put his hand out, "Someone give me a clean knife," Allison took hers out and handed it to him, "Thank you," Then Dean started to cut.

Derek screamed and shouted, Joseph grabbed a loofa from the box and shoved it in his mouth.

By the time Dean was done, Jo and Joseph had gotten some of the strongest pain meds she could find from the pharmaceutical aisle, Allison had thrown up, and Derek was down one arm.

* * *

The walk home was silent aside from Derek's pained moans. Joseph and Dean carried the water cases which wher duct taped to the wooden board. Jo and Allison were practically carrying Derek while also holding some of the food in backpacks they had found on one of the stores shelves.

It took twice as long to get home as it did to get to the store.

The beat up team was relieved to arrive at the walls. Allison knocked loudly on the gate, "Its us, Dean, Allison, Derek, Jo, and Joseph, please open up!" She shouted.

It was maybe about thirty seconds until the gate did finally open, but it felt like an eternity.

A very pale looking Sam and a irritated looking Bobby met the group. Sam's eyes widened as he took in the groups appearance, "What the hell happened to you?"

Dean shook his head, quickly noticing how pale Sam looked, "What the hell happened to _you?"_

* * *

 **Heyo, uhh, yeah this chapter got pretty dark... Sorry bout that. I tried to not go too far into detail. Also sorry about the super weak cliffhanger, but it had to be done.**

 **Anyway, yes, I cut of poor Derek's arm, yes that will be important for later for many reasons, and no, it shouldn't get that bloody again... I can't promise that but trust me, it's my goal.**

 **Well, tell me what you think! I got some really helpful reviews on the last chapter! Feel free to drop me some more! I love and am grateful for all types of feedback! -XOXO**


	3. Got A Whole Lotta History

_A very pale looking Sam and an irritated looking Bobby met the group. Sam's eyes widened as he took in the group's appearance, "What the hell happened to you?"_

 _Dean shook his head, quickly noticing how pale Sam looked, "What the hell happened to you?"_

* * *

Sam watched as Dean and his mission group left the gates. He watched Dean go over his routine checklist with the team. Sam smiled a little when Dean asked the good old potty question. Damn, what he wouldn't give to be going out on that mission with them. It wasn't like it was anything too spectacular, but with Dean's concerns about the doctor's new vaccine idea... He just wanted to get away for a few hours.

"Sam!" He heard somebody call from behind him. He turned to see Bobby.

Bobby had always been like an uncle to him and Dean. Whenever his dad had a hunt that was too dangerous for the boys, he'd drop them off at Bobby's place for a few days. Bobby had always been so happy to have them. He'd take them into town for ice cream or just throw a baseball around with them. Sam always got the feeling that Bobby wanted them as far away from their dad as possible. Hunting just wasn't a good place for young boys.

"What's up Bobby?"

"You sure you're okay with this blood stuff?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's not like he's going to take all of my blood or make me bleed out. He's just taking a little to experiment with. It's no big deal." Sam explained.

Bobby shook his head, "I don't like this, boy,"

Sam scoffed, "You sound just like Dean,"

Why was everyone so freaked out about this? All he was doing was letting Mark, a freaking doctor, take a little bit of blood to see if they could make a vaccine. A vaccine which could save lives. So many people were dying because of the Croatoan virus, there was no reason not to try this out.

"I'm just worried about you,"

"Don't be, I'm going to be fine,"

Bobby shrugged, "Whatever you say kid. Go to the kitchen and tell whoever's on duty to give you some fruit. If they give you any trouble tell them that I sent you. You need somethin' in you before you give blood,"

Sam smiled, "Thanks Bobby,"

After Bobby walked away, he headed over to the cafeteria. He opened the door and was greeted by the awful smell of 'Nature's Stew', one of the chef's specialties. It's made from common herbs found around the camp and vegetables that grow in the makeshift garden. They only make it when food starts getting scarce. Sam hated it, it tasted like dirt. He really hoped Dean and the others brought back something good.

"Emily? Rob?" Sam called out to the chefs that should be on shift.

"Yeah?" He heard Emily call back in her thick southern accent.

"Do we have any fruit stocked up?"

Emily came out of the kitchen, "I think so, why? You have a request?" She smiled. Emily was always a very cheerful lady. She was young, in her late twenties. She always found a way to smile, no matter how bleak the situation. Whenever Sam felt like he couldn't make it anymore, he'd come and volunteered at the kitchen in hopes that Emily's happiness would rub off on him. It usually did.

"Not really," He let out a small laugh, "This is going to sound unbelievably selfish, but can you spare me some?"

Emily furrowed her eyebrows, "I can't just toss you food anytime you want, I don't care how important you are,"

Sam took a deep breath, "I can't exactly tell you why yet, but according to Bobby, I need it,"

Emily hesitated a moment or two, "And if I go and ask Bobby he'd say the same thing?"

Sam nodded as a response.

"I'll give it to you, but I'm gonna ask Bobby about it as soon as I can and if he says you were lyin', then I will be damn sure to cut your meal sizes in half," She threatened.

"Good thing I'm not lying,"

She narrowed her eyes, then broke out into a grin, "Whatever you say Winchester" She replied on her way to go get the fruits for him.

Sam looked around a bit while he waited, making a mental note to make sure Emily was one of the first to get the vaccine if it ended up working.

* * *

Sam sat under a tree eating one of the three fruits Emily gave him. She gave him an apple, and orange, and a banana. He had no idea where she had gotten any of them from, but he decided not to question it. He let his mind wander to the group going to get food for the camp. He hoped Dean thought to get blue Gatorade. For some reason, blue Gatorade reminded him that there was a time before this mess. That there was a time when he wasn't the soul cause of the world's inevitable end.

He thought back to days right before he let Lucifer out of the cage. If only he had listened to Dean and Chuck. He just had to trust Ruby. He had to kill Lilith. Who would have thought he would have regretted killing Lilith?

Times were so different now, not only did he have to protect himself and Dean, but he had to protect a whole colony of people. They had to train normal, innocent people to fight like hunters, to think like hunters, and to act like hunters. Hell, just last week, he'd been teaching a small group of people how to wield an angel blade, and one of the girls in the group swung the wrong way and stabbed him in the side. It wasn't that big of a deal, Dean sewed him up back at their cabin, but it pissed him off to think that that girl would never have to touch an angel blade if it wasn't for him.

He was broke out of his thoughts by Ellen's voice, "Sam, you ready?"

He stood up, "Yeah,"

"I know you've probably heard this a hundred times today, but are you sure you want to do this?"

"Ellen, I'm 100% positive. It's not that big of a deal. Its not like I'm volunteering to be killed or anything," What he wasn't going to tell anyone is, if he had the chance, he'd let himself die if it meant saving everyone else.

Ellen smiled, "Alright then, let's go," She put a hand on his shoulder and lead him to the infirmary.

He started to make small talk with her, "So, how's Jo been? I haven't got to talk to her lately,"

"She's been alright. Between you and me, I don't think she likes livin' with me very much."

He laughed, "Why's that?"

"Well imagine it, you're a 22 year old girl in the middle of the apocalypse, and you've got to be bunked up with you're mother," She chuckled and looked up at Sam, "How would you like that?"

"I think I see where you're coming from,"

"Exactly, how's being stuck with Dean?"

Sam let out a small laugh, "Well... It's probably about how you'd think it is. He's either making plans for missions, insulting me or bitching about Cas, there's not really an in between."

"I guess that's better than nothin',"

It was nice to talk about something other than doomsday or survival for a change. Sam was almost disappointed when they reached the infirmary.

The infirmary wasn't used very often. There was never really much need for it. People were generally careful outside of the walls, plus they were always accompanied by either Sam and/or Dean. Both of the boys had tons of experience fighting off monsters so it was kind of hard to get hurt around them. Of course there was the occasional cold, but Mark had plenty of over the counter cold medicine.

When Ellen and Sam walked in, they saw Mark cleaning off the needle he would use to take the blood. He looked up when he heard them enter, "Hey Ellen, Sam. Come on over here and sit down, I'll be just a minute."

The two obeyed and sat on a small wooden bench in front of a table. Sam watched Mark clean the needle. He watched him set up the needle to the tubes. Sam really wished he would have done all of the preparations before he got there, watching the whole process wasn't something he wanted to do.

"Alright, all ready. Which arm do you usually get blood taken from?" Mark asked.

"I've never really gotten blood taken, not voluntarily at least," He replied, attempting a joke.

Mark smiled, "That's okay, just give me whichever arm you feel most comfortable with,"

Sam put out his left arm, he figured he'd rather have needles sticking in the arm he didn't use to fight with.

Mark wrapped a tourniquet tightly around Sam's arm, he then inserted the needle into Sam's vein, "I've decided to take as much blood as they would for a normal blood donation. This way, there can be several different vaccines to test out." Mark explained.

Ellen raised an eyebrow, "How much blood would that be?"

"A pint," Mark answered.

"Is that a lot?" Ellen asked.

"No, the human body has approximately ten pints of blood, and Sam is a bigger guy so he'll be just fine," Mark described.

Ellen and Sam looked at each other. Sam shrugged, "Okay, sounds good to me,"

The three sat in silence as the blood flowed from Sam's arm into the plastic bag.

* * *

Mark O'Brien was usually confident in his work. He knew how to take blood. He'd done it hundreds of times before. But for some reason he'd been weary of taking Sam's blood. Maybe it was because of the environment, maybe it was because he hadn't taken blood in over a year, maybe because it was Sam Winchester with the big scary brother he was taking the blood from.

He had almost backed out and decided a vaccine wasn't that important.

He had no idea why he was so scared to take blood from this kid. After all, he had all the supplies he needed. He knew how to find a vein on the first try, hell one of his teachers in med school told him he was good at taking blood. But for some reason, he had this nagging feeling that he shouldn't.

In the end, he blamed his nerves on the new environment he was in. He hadn't even taken somebodies blood outside of a hospital, but people did it all the time. There were doctors in battle zones preforming full blown surgeries with less tools than he had. There was no reason he should be nervous to take a little bit of blood.

Still, every fiber in his being screamed at him to change his mind. To tell them that his idea was stupid. To drop it and pretend like he never had the idea in the first place. But he refused. After all, he was just a man with a needle and god complex. There's no way he could back down from an opportunity like this.

Maybe he should have listened to his instincts. Because somehow, in some way, he messed up.

He doesn't know how it happened. He'd made sure the needle was clean, he'd made sure the tourniquet was tight enough. He'd estimated how much of the bag to fill up before stopping. He'd even made sure to get Bobby to get Sam to eat before he came in.

Normal blood donations take about ten minutes. Around the seven minute mark, Sam passed out started to get dizzy looking. Mark tried to get the needle out but Sam stopped him asking, "Do you have all you need?"

"No, but it should be enough,"

"Don't take it out then, you need every bit you can get. Just in case something happens,"

"Sam getting this blood is not as important as your health, I'm going to take the needle out," Mark reached for the needle again.

Sam started to slap his hand away but he was unconscious before he could finish.

Ellen stood up, "Mark!"

"I know! I know! I'm working on it!" Mark raced to get the needle out and the tourniquet off.

Ellen was furious, "What the hell just happened?"

"I have no idea," Mark replied as he was putting gauze over Sam's arm, "Go get whoever's closest outside, we need to get him to a bed,"

Ellen ran outside to find somebody. Meanwhile Mark took the blood and put it in one of the cupboards, there was no need in rising too many questions just yet. Mark made his way back so Sam as Ellen returned with Chuck. Thank god, its just Chuck.

"What happened?" Chuck asked, wide eyed.

"I don't know yet, I'll get back to you on that," Mark snapped, "How far is his cabin from here?"

"About 60 or 70 yards up, why?" Ellen replied.

Mark shook his head, "I'm debating whether we should take him there or keep him here,"

"Keep him here for God's sake, why would we take him to his place?" Chuck questioned, clearly freaking out.

"This is a public place, if anyone comes in here they'll see him," Mark said, panicking.

Ellen rolled her eyes, "If we take him outside, they'll see him too. Here is our best bet, let's go. I thought you were a surgeon. Aren't surgeons supposed to be able to deal with crisis?"

Chuck, Ellen, and Mark picked Sam up, supporting him rather awkwardly. They took him to the closest cot and laid him down.

Ellen turned to Mark, then rather calmly explained, "For your own sake, you better figure out just where you went wrong and fix it before that big brother of his gets back." She gave him one last glare then exited, "I'm goin' to go find Bobby,"

Chuck looked at Sam, "She's right, hell hath no fury like a pissed off Winchester," He followed Ellen, leaving Mark to figure out just where he went wrong.

* * *

When Sam woke up, he felt the violent need to puke up everything he had ever eaten. He felt dizzy. His heart was beating faster than it normally did, and he was having a little bit of trouble breathing. What the hell happened?

He looked around, taking in his surroundings. He was still in the infirmary. He was laying on one of the cots, but he didn't remember leaving the bench he was sitting on. He wanted to get up, but he couldn't seem to find enough strength to.

He saw Mark coming toward him, "Sam, you're awake," He seemed relieved.

"What happened?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out,"

Sam frowned, "Some doctor you are,"

Mark looked down, "Some doctor I am," He paused for a few seconds, "I assure you, I cleaned the needle at least twelve times, I went over everything in my head, I made sure Bobby got you to eat, I tied the tourniquet correctly, I honestly can't figure out what I did wrong." He shook his head, "But then I remembered, we're in apocalyptic times and you don't exactly have the safest job, and I didn't think to ask you for your recent medical history. I guess I should ask now, have you lost any substantial amounts of blood lately?"

Sam was stunned. He had had many injuries over the course of his hunting career. Most of which would send normal people to the hospital. He'd been stabbed, shot, and bitten more times than he can count. He'd had more dislocated shoulders than any normal person has ever had. Every time Dean simply patched him up and they moved on, "Last week, when I was teaching some of the people how to use a blade, I accidently got stabbed. Dean stitched it up for me, but I guess I lost a fair amount of blood,"

Mark was surprised by this, "You got stabbed and you didn't come to the infirmary?"

"Trust me, I've had worse. All I needed was some stitches and some alcohol and I was fine," Sam smirked weakly.

Mark pursed his lips, "Alright then, drink this. You're staying here until you get your strength back. I'm not screwing up with you again. I'm going to get you some food," He handed him a bottle of water then left him to head for the cafeteria.

Sam drank the water, gathering enough strength to sit up. He continued to drink the water, deciding to just shut out all thoughts and just be. He was too worn out to even think.

After a few minutes, Bobby came in carrying a box of crackers, "Hey kid,"

"Hi," Sam replied shortly.

"These are probably stale but you should be able to hold 'em down." He sat down next to Sam's cot, "I ran into doc on his way to the cafeteria. He told me what happened. I told him to take a break and I brought you these,"

"Thanks,"

"You're brother's gonna be all kinds of pissed out when he gets back,"

Sam ate a cracker, already starting to feel a little bit better, "No kidding,"

"How are you feelin'?"

Sam scoffed, "Are you really asking me that question?"

Bobby smiled a little, "I guess that's a stupid question,"

"Oh yeah,"

They sat in silence for about an hour. Sam eating a cracker here and there, Bobby just being with him. It was relaxing, Sam almost wished he could do it more often. It was really nice until Bobby decided to ruin it with talking, "Sorry about the doc being a dud,"

"Let's not talk about that,"

"No really, we trusted him, and he goes and does this," Bobby furrowed his eyebrows, "I'm kinda pissed,"

Sam laughed a little at that, "Are you now?"

Bobby didn't seem to appreciate that Sam thought his anger was funny, "Shut up you damned idjit,"

Suddenly they heard a knocking at the gates and somebody shouting. Sam couldn't make out exactly what the voice was saying but he managed to pick up a few words: Us... Dean... Allison... open...

"It's Dean's group!" Sam exclaimed.

Bobby stood up and started toward the gate, "Stay here, I'll go get them,"

Naturally, Sam didn't listen and stood up. Bobby knew there was no way to talk him into getting back into bed so he settled for supporting Sam on their trek to the gate. The infirmary was intentionally placed near the gate in case anybody had any injuries that needed attending to. It was meant to be quick and efficient.

Bobby opened the gate, revealing the broken group.

Sam took in the sight before him. Dean had blood splattered all over his front, he was carrying a board with water cases on top of it with Joseph who seemed relatively uninjured, but majorly disturbed. Allison and Jo were carrying a semi-conscious Derek. All three were covered in blood. Sam examined the group to try and figure out where all the blood was coming from. His brain was working too slow for his liking. Then he spotted it, Derek's hand was completely gone, covered only by a cloth drenched in blood.

Before he knew it, he found himself asking, "What the hell happened to you?"

He must have looked pretty bad himself because he heard Dean ask, "What the hell happened to _you_?"

* * *

 **Okay wowza, three chapters in two days, this has to be some sort of record. I've never done this before. Ideas keep coming to my head and I just have to write. Sorry if I'm annoying you guys. XD**

 **Updates will probably start to slow down pretty quickly. Don't expect it to always be like this. Anyway, here's what Sam's been up to. It's not as exciting as the last chapter but I felt it was necessary and who doesn't love a little Sam whump.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading! Feel free to tell me your thoughts, and help me with my writing process. I have told a few of you this already, but I am ashamed to say that I am what I like to call a "Triage Writer". What that means to me is I get all of my ideas in one place and try to force them into words either too quickly or with very little organization so if you notice anything, please feel free to tell me. It helps me a lot. I really do like to learn from my mistakes and fix them.**

 **With that said, thanks again, I love everyone who reads any of my stories! - XOXO**


	4. How to Save a Life

Dean found himself in a mild state of shock. He came home expecting everything to be normal. Expecting his only problem would be to keep Derek alive. He should have known that wouldn't be the case. Nothing had ever been easy for the Winchesters.

As soon as he saw Sam, he knew something had happened. He was far to pale to be up and walking. He felt his blood boil inside him, someone had done something without telling Dean first.

He pulled Joseph and the water as quickly as he possibly could to the cafeteria. He set it down, not bothering to say a word to whoever was on shift. He was pissed. He hurried to the infirmary where he assumed they had taken Derek and Sam.

Sure enough he opened the doors to see Ellen, Mark, and Chuck gathered around one bed, and Bobby trying to keep Sam down on another, "Come on kid, you've gotta rest,"

"I'll rest after I help!" Sam struggled.

"You're no help to him right now, just lay back,"

"Listen to Bobby Sam. There's nothing you can do for him," Dean called out, making his way to Derek's bed. As much as he wanted to take care of Sam, he knew it could wait. There were bigger fish to fry, "What's going on? Is he going to be okay?"

Mark was working to try and stop the bleeding, "What happened? How did this happen?" He asked Dean without taking his eyes off the arm.b

"He got a cut, some Croat blood got in it. I couldn't let him die, I had to do something," Dean answered.

"So you cut off his arm?"

"Yes,"

Mark shook his head, he almost seemed angry, "Why would you do that?"

"He was going to die,"

Mark looked up at Dean for a few seconds, "Well at the rate he's losing blood, he's going to die anyway. You just made it more painful,"

This set Dean off, but before he could yell at the doctor, he heard a weak voice come from behind him, "Give him my blood."

Dean turned to Sam faster than a wanted man turns from cops, "Did you just say blood?"

Sam nodded.

How had he not put it together yet? Of course, the reason why Sam was so pale and weak was because the doctor had taken the blood already. He'd obviously messed it up too. He looked back to Mark, "You took Sam's blood before I got back?" He shouted.

Ellen grabbed Dean's shoulder, "Dean, it's not the time,"

"Did you know about this?" He was furious.

Ellen hesitated before answering, "I did,"

"You heard me say I wanted to be there! You knew I didn't want that to be without me! Why the hell would you do it anyway?"

Bobby stood up from where he was sitting next to Sam, "Boy, I know you're all kinds of pissed right now, but this is not the time or the place to lash out. We're got a 19 year old kid bleedin' out on a bed three feet from you. Its in everyone's best interest that I ask you to sit your butt down and be quiet. We'll deal with everything else later,"

Dean didn't like it, but he sat down anyway.

"Sam, what's your blood type?" Mark asked.

"O negative," Dean answered before Sam had a chance.

"Universal donor. This could work," Mark nodded, Dean could practically see his brain thinking, "Ellen, I put Sam's blood in a metal box on the top shelf, please go get that for me," He ordered as he continued working, "Bobby, do you know where the drug safe is?"

"Yeah,"

"Good, here's the key," Mark reached into his pocket and tossed the key to Bobby, "Go in and get some morphine, Derek's going to need it bad when he wakes up," Mark seemed to be getting his confidence back, "Does anyone know if Derek has any family or friends?"

Dean shrugged, "I think he had a sister but I'm not sure,"

"Damn it, I need to know for sure so I can let them know what happened,"

Dean decided to take matters into his own hands, "Chuck, go get as many people as you can in one place and tell them what's going on. Hurry too, if anyone comes to you saying their his friend, bring them here,"

Chuck nodded, ready to obey, "What exactly do I tell them?"

"Everything, be honest,"

Just as Chuck left, Bobby spoke up about the medicine, "Hey, uh, doc, there's no morphine in the safe,"

Mark shook his head, "No there has to be, I took inventory. We had tons. Sam and Dean and a few others went on a run to one of the hospitals and got some a few weeks ago,"

"Well, it's gone,"

Dean furrowed his eyebrows. He remembered that run. He remembered reading over dozens of drug names to find the word morphine. There was no way it was already gone. No one got hurt, "Bobby, are you sure you checked it checked it all?" He asked.

"Positive, I checked it twice,"

"Derek's going to have a hard couple of weeks if he doesn't have meds," Mark stated.

Suddenly a thought came to Dean's mind, "I think I know where the morphine went,"

"Where?" Mark questioned.

Dean dreaded his next words, "Castiel,"

Mark didn't seem suprised, "The addict, of course,"

* * *

Dean knocked on the door of his old friends house, praying that he would answer. He waited for about 45 seconds he knocked again, as he knocked, the doors flew open, "You're a persistent one I see," His friend's deep voice stated.

Dean decided to get straight to the point, "Cas, if you have any morphine, please hand it over,"

"Why? Do you want to try it out? Is Dean Winchester joining the dark side?" Castiel retorted with a slight smirk. There was a time Castiel didn't even know what a smirk was. Dean wanted nothing more than to go back to those days.

"No, there's someone who genuinely needs it. If you could give up your stash that would be great,"

Castiel raised an eyebrow, "How bad do you want it?"

"I'm not afraid to knock you out cold and go get it myself. Quit beating around the bush, Cas," Dean just wanted to get away as quick and as easy as possible.

Castiel narrowed his eyes, looking as if he was going to say something else, but he turned and motioned for Dean to step through the door.

"Where is it?"

Castiel smirked once again, "Find it yourself, haughty,"

Dean rolled his eyes, then grabbed Castiel's shirt collar, "Listen up angel, there is a 19 year old kid bleeding out in the infirmary. The Cas I knew would have given the morphine up the first time I asked. Wait, the Cas I knew wouldn't have taken the morphine in the first place!" He shook his head in disapproval, "Look, I get it, the apocalypse has been hard on you, but that doesn't give you the right to stop fighting. What happened to you man?"

For months Dean tried to get Cas out of whatever trance he was in by calmly talking to him, asking him what was wrong, and how he could help? He'd been polite about it, giving Cas his space, thinking that all he needed was a little time to figure things out, but now... Now he was fed up. Castiel had been given more than enough time to adjust. There was no reason for him to be doing what he was doing.

Castiel pointed to a small box under a table, "Everything's in there," He said.

Dean opened the box, seeing many syringes and pill bottles inside. He picked it up, making the decision to take all of the drugs. He'd originally hoped that Cas would give the drugs up on his own so he let him have them, swearing to everyone who second guessed him that 'It will work, I promise, I know Cas,'. It was apparent now that he was wrong and needed to take a new approach.

Times were changing once again, with the recent injuries and the new vaccine coming into view - There was no room in the picture for an addict.

* * *

Dean raced back to the infirmary, going as fast as his legs would take him. He burst through the doors to see Derek receiving Sam's blood, Sam asleep on his cot, Ellen finishing up the bandage on Derek's arm, and Mark and Bobby arguing in the back of the room.

Ellen looked up at him, "Good you got it," She stated quietly, as not to interrupt Sam or the argument going on behind her.

He nodded, handing her the box,"I took everything he had," He explained, mimicking her tone.

"I thought we were lettin' him give it up himself?"

"That wasn't going to work,"

"I'm glad you realized that." She paused to put administer the morphine into Derek's arm.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Dean asked, referring to Ellen giving Derek the medicine.

Ellen smiled a little, "Yeah, Mark taught me how to give different drugs to people in case he's not around."

"He's right there," Dean said, keeping his tone low.

"They're arguin' about Sam, I don't want to interrupt,"

Dean tensed up at that, "What do you mean arguing about Sam?"

"Well by the way it's lookin', Derek's goin' to need all of Sam's blood that he donated. Which leaves none for the vaccine. Mark wants to take more of Sam's blood whenever Sam gets his strength back, but Bobby is against it because he doesn't want what happened this time to happen again."

Dean felt his blood boil inside him, he had forgotten about the vaccine. He felt a new wave of anger towards Mark, Ellen, hell even Sam! He was angry that they didn't wait for him to get back to take the blood. He was angry because they took too much blood. He was angry that Ellen and Sam let that so called doctor go through with it when they heard him say he wanted to be there, "I'm on Bobby's side," He said, louder this time. Who cares if he interrupted their argument, "You're not getting a drop of blood from Sam,"

Mark turned to Dean, "Dean you have to realize, I could do something big here. I could alleviate people's fears of being turned. I could help people be more willing to go out and help get supplies. You saw them this morning! Bobby had to volunteer Joseph, Allison, and Derek to go out there with you. I could change that!"

He made a good point, but Dean wasn't going to give in, "Or you could put a lot of people through a lot of pain. If the vaccine doesn't work, you could unnecessarily infect people. You could get their hopes up only to have them crushed by reality. You could scare them even more. Quit trying to play God!"

"I'm not trying to play God, I'm trying to help,"

"You are bei-"

Dean was cut off by Sam's weak voice, "Dean?"

He was at Sam's side in seconds, "What's up Sammy?"

Sam grabbed Dean's forearm, "'M dizzy,"

"Yeah, you're supposed to be. If you don't remember, you lost a lot of blood,"

"Dean?"

"Yes?"

"Uh,"

Dean shook his head, he could tell the blood loss was really starting to take toll now, "Go to sleep Sam,"

"Mkay..." Within seconds the kid was asleep again.

Dean looked back at Mark, "I'm not letting you do this to him again,"

Mark started to say something, but was cut off by Ellen, "Why don't we save this conversation for the mornin'?"

"I like that plan," Bobby crossed his arms, "I'm goin' to head off for bed. Ellen, why don't you stay here with Derek? We both know Dean's gonna be here all night, and I don't think it's best him and Mark are in the same room,"

No one felt like arguing.

Mark followed Bobby out the door, "If anything happens, come get me immediately,"

Dean rolled his eyes and pulled a cot up next to Sam's. He couldn't wait for this night to be over.

* * *

 **This chapter's a little shorter, but I mean, a lot happened in it so I hope that can make up for it.**

 **Anyway, I don't have much else to tell you guys other than, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! I love all of you!**

 **-XOXO**


	5. Smoke On The Water

The night thankfully passed without any problems. Both Derek and Sam slept through the night.

The next morning, Sam woke up feeling much stronger than the day before. He opened his eyes, letting them wander around to take note of his surroundings. Dean was asleep on a cot beside him, Derek was on a cot a few cots down from him, and Ellen was sitting in a chair, leaning forward with her head bowed. She looked almost like she was... praying.

After a few seconds, Sam decided to speak, "Ellen?"

Ellen, keeping her head bowed, put up a finger, telling Sam to wait.

He sat up in his cot, waiting for her to finish whatever she was doing.

Approximately two minutes later, Ellen looked up, "What did you want, Sam?"

"Were you praying?" he asked, ignoring her question.

She let out a small breath, "I guess I was," she shook her head, "I don't know why, it's not like anybody's listenin',"

Sam nodded, "I do it to sometimes. I think we all do," he shrugged, "It helps to pretend that someone's out there looking after us, to have a little bit of faith,"

Ellen smiled, "I'm the one who's supposed to be tellin' you those things,"

"Why's that?"

"I'm older,"

Sam smirked, "Older doesn't necessarily mean wiser. I know that for a fact. I mean look at Dean and me,"

Ellen rolled her eyes, laughing a little bit, "Point taken," she looked at her hands for a second before meeting Sam's eyes, "That brother of yours is gonna be mad when he wakes up to see you talkin' to me instead of wakin' him up,"

"He'll just have to deal with it," he looked at his brother's sleeping form, "He'll get over being mad at you, you know that right?"

Ellen shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm serious, you're family. Dean can't stay mad at family for too long,"

"I hope you're right,"

Suddenly, the doors to the infirmary opened up to reveal Mark, holding a bag and being followed closely by Chuck, "How'd everything go last night?" Mark questioned.

"Good," Ellen replied.

"Good, did Derek wake up at all?"

"No,"

Dean lifted his head up, groaning.

"Good morning Sunshine, you sleep good?" Sam teased.

Dean glared at him, "Shut up, Sasquatch,"

Mark moved to Derek and started changing his bandages, "I have a feeling we're going need to send someone out to get some more bandages before too long,"

"I'll pull something together," Dean said, giving the death stare to the back of Mark's head. Sam knew he was trying his hardest not to tackle the doctor, but for the sake of everyone in the room, he was resisting.

Chuck spoke up then, "Dean, I gather everyone in the camp and told them what was going on,"

"What did you say?"

"I told them the truth about what happened to Derek,"

Dean nodded, "Did you say anything about Sam?"

"I was going to leave Sam completely out of it, but Emily asked where he was. She said something about fruit..." He faded off, looking questioningly at Sam.

"I got fruit from her before I came in to get blood taken," Sam explained.

"Okay good, I was starting to think it was something kinky,"

Sam was horrified, "Oh God no," he said, shaking his head.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Okay, moving on, what did you tell her?"

"I told her that Mark was worried about people getting hurt and bleeding out so he asked Bobby if he knew anyone with O negative blood that would be willing to donate. Then I said that Sam volunteered to do it and that there was a small mishap and Mark wanted to keep him in overnight just in case."

Dean nodded again, "Okay, thanks Chuck," he looked at Sam, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm good, a lot better than yesterday," Sam looked over to Mark, "When can I leave?"

"Drink a water bottle and eat this orange, then you're free to go," Mark replied, pulling a banana and a water bottle out of his bag.

* * *

Dean saw to it that Sam got back to their cabin safely before attending to a few... 'errands'. His first line of business would be to set up a time where he could yell at Mark and not get scolded for it. He hated the idea of Mark going around, being all doctor-like without knowing that what he did was completely out of line. Then he would set up another meeting to argue about the vaccine. Everyone seemed to be telling him that it was 'not the time'. By God, he was going to make it the time.

After setting up the meetings, he would go check in on Cas. He'd search the whole room for traces of drugs, or anything that could possibly be smoked or snorted. He'd also make sure there was no way he could acquire anything of the sort. He'd then find a way to help Cas get through withdraw.

His plan was set in his mind as he strode straight to Bobby's cabin, knocking on the door impatiently.

"What the hell do you want?" Bobby yelled as he opened the door.

"We need to have a meeting with everyone who know's about the vaccine," Dean said, preparing for an arguement.

"You're damn right we need to have a meetin'! We haven't been able to agree on that damn thing since the beginin',"

Dean was a little suprised that Bobby had agreed with him so quickly. He was so used to people disagreeing and fighting with him over everything; he didn't expect this to be any different. "Alright," he pulled his infamous half smile, "Okay, can you set that up?"

"I'm not your slave, boy," Bobby grumbled.

"I know that, but I have drug-addicted angel to attend to,"

Bobby hesitated for a second, "Fine, I'll set up the meetin' as long as you keep me updated on Castiel. If you need help with him, I'm here,"

Dean nodded, "Thanks, Bobby,"

Dean was relieved that the meeting would be taken care of. He was worried he'd have a harder time getting that going. Now all he had to worry about was getting the angel clean, hopefully this time it would actually work. He slowly made his way to Castiel's cabin, picking a cardboard box up along the way. As much as he wanted to help, he dreaded how hard it was going to be.

He arrived at the door and barged in, not bothering to knock. The first thing he saw was Cas sprawled out on hos cot, sleeping. Dean picked up a plastic bowl from the table and threw it at the angel's back, "Rise and shine sleeping beauty,"

Castiel groaned, "Dean, I would appreciate it greatly if you'd leave,"

"I don't care about what you appreciate, I'm here to clean out everything you have," Dean explained, smirking, this could be fun.

Without picking his head up, Cas simply said, "Leave."

"No can do," Dean replied, opening up the windows to make the room brighter.

Cas dug his head deeper into his pillow.

Dean started opening drawers and emptying boxes, taking out anything and everything and putting it in his pockets and into the box. If getting his old friend back meant stripping his freedom away for a little while, it was worth it.

"What are you doing?" Castiel asked.

"Helping you out,"

Castiel glared at Dean, "You can't take my things,"

"And what exactly are you gonna do about it?" Dean questioned, his eyebrows raised.

Castiel didn't have an answer for that. He just stared as Dean continued to take his things away.

"You're going to clean up Cas. You're going to start helping out, and going on runs with us. I know you miss being a part of the action, you have to miss it." Dean stated, his back turned to Castiel.

"I can't Dean, you're getting your hopes up,"

Dean turned to face Cas, "Do you want to?"

This seemed to throw Cas off, "I'm sorry?"

"Do you want to?"

"Want to what?"

"Don't play stupid Cas. Do you want to clean up?"

Castiel paused, thinking, "I don't know,"

"That's good enough for me," Dean nodded, carrying all of Castiel's things outside.

Cas followed him, confused, "What am I supposed to do now?"

"You're going to do whatever _I_ tell you to do." Dean crossed his arms, "You're going to quit the drugs cold turkey. You're going to start training again with me and Sam. You're going to get back into shape to fight. Starting now, you have about as much freedom as North Korea. You're going to come to me before you do anything. You can get your freedom back by proving to me that you're better. You can't lie to me about it, I can always tell when you're lying,"

"This isn't necessary,"

"Yes, it is. I'm not going to let this go. I can't lose you too," Dean had lost many people in his life, his mom, his dad, many friends, hell even Sam a couple of times. There was no way he'd let himself lose anyone else. Not if he could help it, "By the way, you're coming to my place for a meeting after dinner. Mark will be there which leaves the drugs unattended, and I can't risk that."

Cas seemed shocked, almost lost. Dean knew that this had to be surprising to the guy. Hell, before today, Dean was practically sitting by watching Castiel self destruct right before his very eyes. He was going to make up for that. He was going to make up for letting his friend fall down the rabbit hole, even if it was the last thing he did.

* * *

When Bobby came to Mark saying that Dean was requesting a meeting, he wasn't surprised. He figured Dean would pull something like that. He was almost glad that he did. They needed to get on the same page. Mark needed to get a chance to explain what he was trying to do, and he understood that Dean needed a chance to do the same. If they continued down the path they were on, they'd fail for sure.

The meeting had been set to happen after dinner, in Sam and Dean's cabin. It was the safest place to talk about the secret vaccine. They needed privacy and couldn't risk talking about the things they needed to talk about in a public place. They debated over who's cabin was the best to hold the meeting at. Many people went to Bobby's cabin to complain or make requests, even more people went to Chuck's cabin to ask questions or gossip (it seemed to Mark that though Chuck didn't do much, he was always there, keeping tabs on everyone, watching every move any of them made, hovering like some sort of benevolent being watching over his disciples. Who knows what kind of secrets he knows.) In the end, they decided on the Winchester's. No one ever showed up to Sam and Dean's cabin unannounced.

Mark was anxious to get the meeting over and done with. He needed to get on with brainstorming ideas for the vaccine. He had thought of a few things that could work and had written them down in a journal. He hoped Dean would agree with him.

Dinner was normal as usual, Emily had made some sort of creamy soup with the food that Derek's group had went out and gotten. Mark almost felt guilty for eating it. After all, Derek lost his hand for it. He let his mind wander to the kid. He was tan, with dark, almost black hair. He was tall too, almost as tall as Sam. He still had a boyish quality about him. Something about the way his features curved on his face screamed innocence. He was just a kid. He didn't deserve to be in a world like this one. He deserved to be going off to college, getting drunk, partying, and flirting with girls. He deserved to be getting his degree, getting a good job, and picking out a special one of those girls, and getting married to her. He didn't deserve this.

The kid had woken up earlier in the day, thanks to the morphine he wasn't in too much pain. Mark would have to remember to thank Dean for that at the meeting.

As Mark sat down with his bowl of soup, he a small, happy commotion behind him. He turned around to see what was going on, and saw Dean walking in with Sam. People were calling Sam a hero for donating the blood. They were smiling and patting him and Dean on the back. It was almost like they were celebrities walking down the red carpet. He supposed in a way, they were. They were the biggest names in the camp, and here they were, walking through the most public establishment in the place.

Mark wondered what people would say if they knew what really happened...

As dinner went on, Mark could see those who were attending the meeting slowly leaving, one by one, to make their way to Sam and Dean's cabin without getting caught.

The first to leave were Sam and Dean. They ate quickly, then got up, Sam leading, followed by Dean who was dragging the addict along with him. Mark wondered what the deal was with Dean and the addict. He was constantly sticking up for him, swearing that he'd drop the drugs. It was strange to him, it didn't seem healthy for either of them, but to each his own.

After Sam and Dean left, Bobby and Ellen excused themselves. Then Chuck

It was his queue to leave. He stood up, put up his bowl and spoon, then followed the tracks of the rest of the group.

When he arrived at the cabin, he saw everyone, the addict included, sitting on various places in the room. Sam and Dean were on one of the cots, Bobby and Ellen on the other. Chuck and the addict sat next to each other on the floor, leaning against the wall. Mark decided to stand by the door. Figuring he'd be more intimidating from higher above.

When everyone was settled, Bobby clapped his hands, "Alright, we all know why we're here-"

He was abruptly cut off, "Actually, I do not know why I am here," the addict stated.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Cas, you know why you're here,"

"No, Dean, I don't. I'd highly appreciate it if someone would explain to me what is going on,"

Dean opened his mouth to say something, but Sam cut him off, "We're having a meeting about whether or not the doctor is going to try and make a vaccine for the Croatoan virus,"

The addict, 'Cas', furrowed his eyebrows, but said nothing more.

Bobby started to talk again, "I'm not real sure how to go about startin' this," he admitted.

"I am, we're not going to make the vaccine," Dean said.

"There is no reason we can't try," Mark replied.

Chuck stood up from where he was sitting, "Okay, it's obvious that we're never going to get anywhere if we keep arguing like this," he was right, "I suggest that Mark and Dean keep quiet, we already know what they think. The rest of us need to say what we think, and then we can vote on it."

Mark sighed, Chuck was right, "That sounds good to me,"

Chuck turned to look at Dean, "What do you say, Dean?"

"I guess that's okay,"

"Perfect, Bobby why don't you start?"

Bobby shrugged, "Honestly, I don't give a rat's ass about this vaccine. I think it'd be nice to have, but we don't need it. Whatever everyone else wants is fine by me,"

"Okay, thanks Bobby. Ellen, what do you think?"

Ellen was nodding her head, "I think it can be somethin' great if we're careful. We have to think about Sam's health and the health of whoever we test it out on first." she explained, making a good point.

Chuck smiled, "Okay, I think I agree with that one, so Castiel? Do you have an opinion?"

The addict shook his head.

"Then that leaves you Sam,"

Sam glanced at Dean before talking, "We need to do the vaccine. As much as I hate to say it, Mark's right. This could be big. It could help in ways that we don't even know yet. We have a chance to start fighting back, to start working to stop the virus, and I say we take it,"

"I'm inspired," the addict, Mark supposed Castiel was his name, muttered.

The group ignored him, Chuck nodded, "Okay, all in favor of the vaccine, raise your hand," Everyone raised their hand expect for Castiel, Dean, and Bobby, "All against the vaccine, raise your hand," Only Dean raised his hand, Mark could practically see his calm façade cracking, "It's settled, we'll start working on the vaccine as soon as its safe,"

* * *

 **Okay this chapter was a son of a bitch to write. I feel like its boring as hell and there's nothing I can do to save it. I don't like it very much, but it was definitely necessary to get to where I want this story to get. I have some great ideas for the next few chapters.**

 **I have a lot in store for Sam and Cas which is going to put a lot of weight on Dean so it's going to get pretty dark. (It shouldn't get as morbid as the mission chapter but, you know) Also, I've got an idea that involves Lucifer that's hopefully going to come to light.**

 **Anyway that's just a tease for what's to come. I hope you enjoyed! Drop me a review if you liked it or even if you hated it! Every word helps me become a better writer. -XOXO**


	6. All I Want

Castiel woke up the morning after the meeting with a killer headache and the burning desire to use. He couldn't quite describe what he was feeling. He was sick, pissed, and maybe a little bit sad, but he couldn't put his emotions into words inside his head. All he could coherently think about was where he could find something to take.

He rolled out of bed as fast as he could without puking. He slowly drudged his way to the door, opening it a little quicker than he should have. He closed it, immediately overwhelmed by the light outside. He ran to a box that sat in the corner of the cabin then threw up in it. It was in that moment that he realized just how angry he was at Dean.

Though Castiel knew Dean was trying to help him, he was pissed. All of his emotions running ramped inside his mind were focused on Dean. He was somehow both angry and delighted that Dean was forcing him through this. He was angry because he wasn't ready to accept his new life without his grace, but he was glad because Dean doing this meant he still cared.

When the Croatoan virus started to spread, Castiel noticed a change. A big chance. No longer was he the powerful angel of the Lord, but he was practically... human. He could feel different things that he never felt before. He couldn't use and of his, as Dean used to call it, 'angel mojo'. He began to feel the need to eat, to drink, to sleep, to... urinate. And he hated it. He hated not having his grace, not being able to heal, not being able to _fly._ He hated that he was able to feel his wings, but he couldn't muster up the power to just take off.

He didn't remember exactly when he started taking the drugs, but he would never forget the feeling they gave him. They made him feel a menagerie of things. They made him feel happiness. Solace. Relief. Magic. Oh boy, did they make him feel magic. They made him feel so powerful. They made him feel like he was an angel again. And there was nothing he wanted more that to be an angel again.

He lifted his head up. He felt disgusting. He was dripping sweat, and he couldn't get enough motivation to wipe it off. He was dirty, but he couldn't find the energy to shower. He hated this feeling almost as much as he hated being human. He supposed in a way, this feeling was simply a side effect of being human.

He sat, his back leaned against the wall. He decided quickly that breakfast wasn't worth the trouble it would be to move from that spot.

* * *

Sam jolted awake, sweating, his heart racing. He felt panicked, horrified, and tired. On top of that he was freezing cold. The worst part was, he didn't know why.

He vaguely remembered having a dream - a nightmare, he supposed. He remembered a bright white light followed by something dark, something cold. He remembered a flash of... blond hair maybe? Everything seemed to happen so fast that when he wracked his brain for any explanation of what his dream had been about, he couldn't find anything.

He shook his head, trying to ignore the eerie feeling the dream had caused him to feel.

He stretched, as he did almost every morning, then turned to Dean, as he did almost every morning, and he threw his pillow at him to wake him up, as he did almost every morning.

Dean responded by throwing his pillow back, muttering grumpily.

Sam stood up from his bed, "Let's get to breakfast,"

Dean seemed angry about it, but he reluctantly rolled out of bed to get to breakfast.

They walked in silence. Sam was too afraid to say anything after the meeting last night, and Dean seemed like he simply didn't want to talk. Sam knew he'd eventually get over it, but if he wasn't careful, Dean would blow up. He knew that Dean had been keeping his thoughts somewhat to himself. If things were different, Sam was sure Dean would have killed Mark.

They arrived at the cafeteria. Hopefully, no one would crowd them like they did the night before. They kept calling Sam a hero and he knew they were wrong. If they had known the things he had done they would probably plot to assassinate him. If they had known that he had started the apocalypse...

He shook his head at the thought of them finding out. Bobby, Dean, and him agreed to keep it a secret from anyone they met. They agreed that normal people knowing the truth would result in chaos. As Dean had said, what they don't know won't hurt them.

He moved through the food line slowly but surely. When he reached the front he had found that Emily had made some pancakes with a side of fruit. He smiled, it was his favorite breakfast. Well, it was everyone's favorite breakfast. They could only expect to get it after a food mission though. It was common knowledge around the camp that if you're on a food run, you have to make an effort to get pancake mix. Sam was glad that they didn't forget with what was happening to Derek at the time.

When he got his plate, he took his usual seat next to Dean at their usual table. Bobby sat across from him, Ellen next to him, Jo next to her, and Cas across from Jo. It seemed Cas would be skipping breakfast that day. Occasionally Chuck would find himself seated with them, but it all depended on who he was dealing with at the time. This week he was with them. He was always helping someone out. Whether it be for a big reason, like the vaccine, or a little one, like a few people feeling sad so he decided to cheer them up. He was just good with his words and had this weird way with people, it was like he knew everything about you before you even told him your name. It was comforting.

They sat in mostly silence, everyone seemingly concentrating on their plates rather than the huge elephant in the room. Every so often Jo would try and break the tension by saying things like, "Wow, this is good," or "It really is a nice day," It didn't work, but Sam had to give it to her, it was worth the try.

Finally, Dean looked up, "Ellen, are you going to tell her what's happening or am I?" he asked, referring to Jo.

"What are you talking about?" Ellen asked back, feigning innocence. If Sam didn't know any better, he'd say she was genuinely confused.

"You know what I'm talking about," Dean stated, Sam could see him getting angrier and angrier. If he didn't do something soon, it would be to late. Things would be said that wouldn't be able to be taken back.

"Dean, I don't know what you're talking about," Ellen said slowly, almost threateningly.

Dean smiled a bitter, fake smile "Of course you do, the vaccine!" he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Sam could see Ellen tense up, "Dean, we don't need to talk about that,"

"Why? Because you know its wrong? Because you know its going to do more bad than good?"

Jo butted in, "What's going on? What vaccine?"

Before Ellen could reply, Dean started to explain, "The vaccine that for some reason requires Sammy's blood. The one that I am 100% against. The one that I asked to not be worked on unless I was in the room. The one that _your mother_ worked on anyway. The reason that Sam lost all of that blood." Dean was talking to Jo but every word seemed to be a jab at Ellen. Eventually, he started talking directly to Ellen, "Do you remember that? Do you remember me _asking_ you to hold it off? Do you remember doing it anyway? Do you remember Sam passing out? Do you remember how it was your fault?" His voice was getting louder and louder as he went on.

Sam decided it was time to put an end to this, "Dean, stop. This isn't going to help anything,"

"And you! You're just as much at fault as she is! How could you of all people do that Sam? Because I know you heard me ask to be a part of it, I _know_ you did,"

Sam turned to Jo, who looked more confused than a fourth grader learning long division, "Dean, I-"

"Don't. Don't try and explain yourself, I don't want to hear it,"

"Dean, I could hear you from my table, people are starting to get worried," Sam heard Mark's voice behind him, "You need to lower it down,"

Dean glared, "You don't get to tell me what to do. This freakin' vaccine idea is stupid. It's going to make more hurt than its going to help, and I don't want to watch it happen!" He flared his nostrils, "You know what? I'm done. I'm freakin' done. I'm out. You do what you want because I'm done caring." He stood up and started for the door.

"Dean," Sam called after him, standing up to go after him. He caught up to him just as he was about to leave the cafeteria, "Dean, stop. You're going to regret this,"

Dean glared at Sam in a way he's never done before, "If you'll excuse me, I've got an angel to check up on," he stated calmly as he turned and walked through the door, leaving Sam behind.

Sam ran a hand through his hair before turning around. Everyone in the room was staring at either him or his table. They had to have heard things they shouldn't have heard.

 _S_ _hit._

* * *

Bobby immediately called a meeting to be held after breakfast. He set it up in Sam and Dean's cabin again. It was the usual group, but Jo took Dean's place. Sam was grateful that Dean was too busy with Cas to be in the room.

Sam had no idea what they were going to do. He knew the rumor mill in this place was fast and assuming. He hoped the civilians didn't hear to much.

"So, breakfast didn't go as well as it could have. People heard things. They heard things they shouldn't've heard. Now we have to do somethin' about it," Bobby stated the obvious, looking irritated, "Please tell me at least one of you have an idea,"

"What is going on exactly?" Jo questioned.

Sam took the responsibility to explain to her what was going on, someone had to do it after all, "Mark had an idea for a Croatoan virus vaccine. Since I'm immune to the virus, he's going to try and use my blood to make it. There was a mishap and now Dean's against it completely,"

"Okay, but I thought you gave your blood for Derek,"

"I gave my blood for the vaccine, but we ended up having to use it for Derek."

Jo nodded, "Why don't we just tell everyone what's going on?"

Chuck shook his head, "We need someone to test the vaccine on when Mark gets it ready, and we don't want them to panic about that,"

"Why can't you use animals first?" Jo asked.

Mark jumped in to answer, "There is no proof that the virus can infect animals. If it could, I'm sure we would have ran out of meat a long time ago,"

"Well," Jo said, hesitating before she said the next part, "They're going to find out anyway. If it were me, I'd want to hear about this sooner rather than later," Jo shrugged.

The room stayed in an uneasy silence for a few minutes. Everyone seemed to be having a mental debate over whether or not to tell about the virus.

At last, Chuck decided to throw up a vote, "All in favor for telling, raise your hand,"

Jo's hand shot up. Then Bobby's. Then Sam's. Then Mark's. Then Ellen's.

"Alright, I'll get that set up," Chuck nodded, "How does dinner time sound?"

* * *

When dinner rolled around, everyone's nerves were heightened. No one knew how the people were going to react to the news. Chuck could hear all of the latest gossip buzzing around the room. He had man people approach him to ask about what happened and where Dean was, as he didn't show up for lunch and it looked like he wasn't going to making an appearance at dinner either. He told them as much as he felt he should at the time, answering nearly every question with, "I'm not sure yet,"

When he saw that everybody was sitting down at their tables, he stood up and approached the front of the room. He decided the best way to get everyone's attention the good old fashioned way, he yelled, "Everyone look up here I've got some news!"

Everyone turned their gaze up to him, as they did so, the door behind him opened up, revealing a disheveled Dean practically carrying a pale and irate Castiel. Chuck could practically see new questions popping into everyone's head.

He waited for the two to find their seats in the back of the room, this time not at their usual table, before he started, "Good evening everyone, I know you all have a lot of questions about what happened this morning." Everyone was nodding their head, "I'm going to try my best to answer all of them. If you have anymore after I'm done please come to _me_ later on and I'll see if I can help you out," He made sure to put emphasis on the word me. He couldn't imagine what would happen if someone asked, say, Dean a question right now.

"As some of you may know, Sam is lucky enough to be immune to the Croatoan virus. This got Mark, our doctor, thinking. He had an idea to create a vaccine based on Sam's blood." He let the thought of that set into the peoples' brains, "Sam did give blood for the vaccine, but it had to be used to save Derek. Mark has to go in and get more later on down the line to continue making the vaccine. This is what has caused the conflict you saw at breakfast this morning." Chuck explained, "Now I'm not only here because of what happened this morning." He hesitated before saying the next part, "Mark needs a courageous volunteer to help him test the vaccine out."

Joseph's hand went up, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that whoever volunteers would be administered the vaccine, then a few days later, would be administered the actual virus to see if it would work," Chuck said slowly.

The room nearly started to riot in protest, everyone was saying things along the lines of, "That's murder!" and "You can't expect us to do that!" and even, "You can shove your vaccine up your ass!"

This is exactly what Chuck had been afraid of, he put his arms up, trying to calm the room, "No one is going to force anyone to do anything they don't want. There is a chance the vaccine would work. It's a risk, but it could be a risk worth taking."

Joseph spoke up again, "Its more than likely not going to work, there's no way we have what we need to make something like that,"

"We do have many different medicines and chemicals that were retrieved from the different missions we have been on. I think it's worth a try. If it works, we could eventually work out way up to curing the virus. Think about how many people that would save,"

"Then why don't you do it?" an older man asked, "You seem so into the idea, why don't you do it?"

Chuck had no answer for that. He could very well be the guinea pig for this vaccine. He racked his brain to find any answer to that question. Why couldn't he do it? Because he didn't want to do it. Because while it was noble, he wasn't brave enough. Because he was weak. He started to internally panic. He hoped his fear wasn't showing on his face.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity to Chuck, Mark spoke up for him, "He's helping me make the vaccine. He's not a doctor, but he's very smart and knows enough for me to bounce ideas off of. He doesn't like to brag about it, but without him I don't think I'd be able to make the vaccine."

The people seemed to be buying into that story. Chuck made a mental note to thank Mark right after this was over. He smiled, trying to pretend to be all humble, "With that said, do we have any volunteers?"

"Hell no you don't" the older man said, "No one in their right mind would agree to that,"

"I volunteer," a deep gravelly voice said from the back. Chuck was shocked, voice belonged to Castiel. He was standing up raising his hand, using the table as support and balance.

The older man turned around and saw who was talking, "Like I said, no one in their right mind," he leaned back in his seat, earning a few laughs from his band of buddies.

Dean was looking up at his as if he was the craziest man in the world, "Cas, no,"

"Why not?"

"Because... You're Cas, you can't do it,"

The whole room was watching the conversation between the two, "I don't see how that pertains to this,"

"Cas just sit down, you don't want to do this," Dean ordered, acting as though he was Castiel's boss.

"Yes, I do, Dean."

Dean shook his head in disbelief, "Why?" He asked simply.

"They need a volunteer, and I need a drugs," he stated.

Of course. He needed drugs. Chuck knew about Dean trying to clean the fallen angel up. He knew that it would be hard. Addiction is a hard thing to break out of. He should have known Castiel would do anything to try and get something in his system, whether is be morphine or a vaccine that may or may not give him a high. He had no doubt in his mind that Castiel wanted this more than anything.

The real question was, should they let him have it?

* * *

 **Okay, not very much happened here, but I felt it was important. We're really going to start picking things up here in a little while.**

 **I'm glad you read this chapter! Feel free to drop a review, I appreciate every word! -XOXO**


	7. Angel With A Shotgun

A few weeks had passed since the vaccine idea was announced to the public. Dean got Castiel clean, it had been a hard uphill battle, but he seemed to be getting the hang of it. Sam spent his time recovering, drinking tons of water and eating a little more food than usual. Mark worked on the chemical workup of the vaccine, he also had to care for Derek who seemed to be healing just fine. Ellen, Jo, and Bobby helped wherever they could.

As for Chuck, well Chuck was simply trying to keep the camp from falling apart. He made sure to keep those opposed to the vaccine away from those for it, especially away from Sam and Mark. Well, more Sam than Mark, but nobody had to know that. He tried his best to talk those against the vaccine into being for it, but some minds are too stubborn to change. He supposed that a camp full of diverse opinions was better than a camp with no opinions at all.

Mark had called the vaccine team to the infirmary for a meeting after lunch one day. The vaccine team now consisted of Sam, Dean, Castiel, Mark, Ellen, Jo, Bobby, the almost healed Derek, Chuck himself, and one civilian, a spunky little red head named Charlie. Everyone in the camp demanded to have one of their own in so they knew that no dirty business was going on behind the scenes.

When everyone was situated, Mark started the meeting, "Alright, so I called you guys here today because I have finally came up with an idea for the vaccine. I have a list of all the chemicals and medicines I need in order to make it." he handed the list to Dean, "I need some of you guys to go out and get this stuff."

Dean read over the list, shaking his head, "What is all of this stuff?"

"There's saline, which will act as a suspending fluid, antibiotics, for obvious reasons, formaldehyde, which is commonly used in inactive vaccines like the one we're putting together, MSG, to keep the vaccine from changing itself over time. I also put Thimerosal on there which will be necessary in case we need to store the vaccine anywhere," Mark explained.

Dean nodded, it seemed obvious that all of the medicine talk went straight over his (and everyone else's for that matter) head, "Okay." His eyes glanced over the list again, "I need a team of five or six then," he looked up to Bobby.

"Pick away, boy," Bobby waved his hand at everyone in the room.

"I want Sam, Cas, Jo, Charlie, and Chuck," Dean stated.

Mark furrowed his eyebrows, "Leave Sam and Cas here," he said the word Cas as if it were poison rolling off his tongue.

"No, you heard Bobby, I get to pick my team," Dean retorted.

"What if Sam gets hurt? He could lose blood which will put the process back a few steps," Mark argued.

Dean crossed his arms, "It's an easy run, he'll be fine,"

"You said that about Derek's run," Mark raised an eyebrow.

"That was a fluke, and Sam has way more experience. No offense Derek."

Derek shrugged, "None taken,"

"What about Castiel? He's hardly fit enough to go on a run," Mark changed the subject, glaring.

Dean smirked, "Do you really trust him to be here on his own?"

Mark pursed his lips, "Fine, take the addict, but Sam's staying here,"

"That's the thing, I don't trust you with Sam. Not after what happened last time," Dean glared.

Judging by the look on his face, Mark knew he had lost, "Fine, take who you like, just get back in one piece this time,"

Dean nodded, "Great, let's get going then,"

"I'm going to start the vaccine as soon as you get back." Mark called out as Dean and his team started to walk out of the infirmary to plan their mission, "Dean, don't let your brother get hurt!"

Chuck looked up to Dean, seeing that he'd ignored Mark, "What's the plan?"

* * *

Dean stood with his group huddled around him. He had no idea where he would find the ingredients he needed. He thought about medicine and where they usually found it and decided to devise a risky plan. He knew he should have been keeping it safe, but there was this unfamiliar small, but powerful voice in the back of his mind screaming at him to take a risk, and for some reason, he couldn't ignore it, "I'm not sure where exactly we'd find this stuff, but I have an idea. The hospital and the pharmacy are our best bet of finding what we need. We can't hit both in one day, there's not enough time, and staying out after dark is too dangerous. My idea is that we split up. One group to the hospital, one to the pharmacy.

"Why don't we just go back out tomorrow if we don't find anything?" Charlie asked.

"I need Mark off my case. There's no way he'd accept letting Sam and Cas go back out tomorrow, he's barely letting them out today." Dean explained, "I want Cas and Charlie to come with me to the pharmacy," he purposely picked the two weaker links to go with him. He knew there was no way any of them would survive without one of the Winchesters, but he also knew he needed to keep Sam as safe as possible, "I want Chuck and Jo to go with Sam to the hospital," he figured if anything bad was going to happen, it might as well happen at a hospital, "When we're through, we meet back here,"

No one in the group seemed to want to argue so they set off on their separate paths.

Dean's group walked mostly in silence, Charlie occasionally sighing or kicking a rock or two in the path. When they finally reached the pharmacy, they weren't surprised to see the window broken. Most windows were broken nowadays. Broken windows made it easier to get in. The three of them climbed through the window, heading straight for the medicine. They found saline and antibiotics quickly.

Then the harder part came. They were met with a cabinet full of different medications, all guarded by an electric key pad. Dean took out his knife. Using the handle end to hit the glass, he beat it as hard as he could with no result aside form the shallow cut in his hand, "Shit," he muttered.

"What do we do now?" Cas asked quietly.

Dean shook his head, clearly angry, "No idea," he glared, bringing his fist down on to the seemingly unbreakable glass.

"Wait," Charlie said, "I've seen this before,"

"Congratulations Red, but your Deja Vu isn't going to help us here," Dean rolled his eyes.

"No, the key pad. I've seen it before," she smiled, "Before all of this, I was an IT employee." she smirked before adding, "I may or may not have had a few problems with authority, which may or may not have lead to the hacking of a few government websites," she giggled a little bit, approaching the key pad.

"You think you can get it open?" Dean questioned.

"I can try," Charlie replied. As she examined the safe, her smile grew wider and wider, until she was almost grinning, "I can do it, one of you get me a magnet,"

Dean searched around until he found a tub of magnets by the cash register of the pharmacy, he brought it back to her and handed it to her. She immediately started on unlocking the safe. She started moving the magnet around on the key pad and typing in different codes into the keys. Within approximately five minutes, she had the damned thing open. It was safe to say, Dean was impressed. Charlie had earned herself Dean's respect.

"How did you do that?"

Charlie shrugged, "It was easy, I'm surprised it took me that long, I must be a little rusty,"

Dean shook his head, "Damn." he looked to the opened door in amazement, "Let's get looking,"

They searched through nearly every package of pills, and every bottle of liquid to try and find what they needed. The only thing they could find was Thimerosal. He hoped Sam had better luck.

The put all their medicines back into their bag, making sure to close the door to the safe incase they ever needed more. They couldn't risk anyone discovering it opened. They slowly made their way back to the start of their journey. Making themselves comfortable while they waited for Sam's group to come back. Dean knew it would take them longer as they had more ground to search.

* * *

Jo, Sam, and Chuck made their way to the hospital fairly quickly. They talked along the way, all of them cracking jokes and laughing quietly. Jo loved being in Dean's group for missions because he was always in control, she always felt controlled and safe, but with Sam, she always felt relaxed. She felt like danger and injury wasn't even possible. She felt like she was out hunting some harmless, no name ghost, not in the middle of the apocalypse.

They stepped through the doors of the hospital, dreading having to search through the whole building. Jo didn't want to think about how many Croats roamed the halls of the hospital.

"We stick together alright?" Sam said, "Stay close,"

Chuck touched Jo's arm, smiling awkwardly as he sang in a very off-key voice, " _We're all in this together,_ "

Jo had to restrain herself from laughing, Chuck was an avid, but closet, High School Musical fan. Only Jo knew. Chuck and her had a shift babysitting the kids of the camp together while their parents were working. He always talked about the High School Musical movies with them. Occasionally they sang the songs together. It had been their inside joke ever since their first shift.

They continued their journey through the hospital, trying to find any sign of drugs. They checked room to room, finally deciding to avoid the patient rooms. There didn't seem to be anything there.

As they were walking down the halls Jo spotted a sign that said 'Hospital Pharmacy'. She gave herself a mental slap on the face for not thinking of that to begin with, "Hey, do you guys think there might be something in the Hospital Pharmacy?" She asked sarcastically.

Sam turned his head to where she was looking, "You've got to be kidding me,"

Chuck laughed and started walking towards it, Jo and Sam closely behind him. They started sifting through the shelves of medicine, searching for the ingredients to the vaccine. Antibiotics and saline were among the first things they found. After a few minutes they found Formaldehyde and themerosal, then shortly after that, the found the MSG.

"Is that all of it?" Jo asked.

"I think so," Sam replied, smiling, "That was easy."

Jo nodded, he was right. She had been expecting to run into dozens of Croats before they could even get into the hospital, "I know, it's a nice surprise," Things had been way to hard for them and the rest of the settlement as of late. It was nice for them to catch a break.

The group of three started to retrace their steps to get back out of the hospital, "Do you remember where the stairs were?" Chuck asked.

"Yeah... At least I think. They should be right up here," Sam said, his eyes focused on what Jo assumed were the stairs.

Luckily, he was right. Right where he was leading them to were a set of double doors labeled 'Stairs'. She could see Sam smiling, he always liked being right. He didn't smile as much as he used to. Compared to his brother, he used to be Grinny McGee, but it seemed like all of the bad had finally caught up to him. It made it to were a smile on his face was a rare sight. He did always have a real sincere, genuine smile. He used to be able to light up the room just by showing his teeth. But the times had changed, it seemed like most of his smiles were forced or just not as happy. The one on his face now was happy, genuine, fresh. Jo could tell that being out in the action, out in the hunt, out in his element was good for him.

Unfortunately, she was too busy focusing on Sam's stupid smile to realize that he had opened the door to four Croats. The second she noticed, she whipped out her knife, quickly killing one. She glanced over to watch Chuck as he took down another and Sam as began to fight the last two. She and Chuck quickly launched into action trying to help fend them off.

For some reason, these two were strong. They were powerful and filled with determination to kill, kill, kill. They were just as fast as they were strong. They seemed to dodge every attempt to kill them with ease, even when they were out numbered.

Some Croats were wiser than others. Jo noticed that the ones who'd looked like they'd been infected longer seemed to have a better control over their evil. They were smart, knowing when to dodge and where to hit. The newer ones seemed to be rugged, savage. The simply fought to fight, hitting whatever they could as hard as they could.

These two were definitely smart. One of them, the bigger one, had managed to gain control over Jo's gun. The other had grabbed Chuck's angel blade. As much as the two of them fought, they simply couldn't do it.

It didn't take long for Jo to realize what was happening. If the Croat could get her gun and not use it on her, something was very wrong. They weren't trying to fight her or even Chuck. They had most of their attention on Sam. They were giving him the beating of his lifetime, and all Chuck and Jo seemed to be able to do was try to slow them down, all the while Jo was screaming, "Stop! Stop! Stop!" as if that would help.

They hit and hit and hit. Using the butt end of the shotgun, and the handle of the knife to hit Sam anywhere and everywhere they could. He was on the ground, trying to stab them with one hand, and trying to shield himself with the other.

After what felt like hours to Jo, but must have only been about a minute, they suddenly stopped. They stood up straight, their heads tilted to the side. It would have been comical had they not just been beating Sam. Jo and Chuck stood back in shock, trying to figure out what was going on. They stood in an eerie, uneasy silence for about ten seconds.

Suddenly, the Croats jumped into action. The one with the gun cocked it and pulled the trigger, the bullet finding its way into Sam's abdomen. The one with the blade brought it down into Sam's shoulder. They stood still for a few seconds, giving Chuck enough time to grab Sam's knife and behead the both of them.

Chuck and Jo looked at each other with fear in their eyes. What the hell just happened?

Jo darted her eyes to Sam, who was laying on the ground, his eyes wide. Sam Winchester was a brave man. Not much could phase him. He had seen everything. He knew there was evil out there, and he knew how to kill it. He didn't get scared. Jo knew this for a fact... Or she thought she did. In that moment, Sam looked terrified. His face was pale in all the places where it wasn't bruising, and his breathing was rapid. He was most definitely in pain. She could see it in the way his eyes were watering, in the way his jaw was clenching. She could see all of the signs of pain drawn on his face like a painting.

She knew he was doing everything in his power not to scream. Even though he was this group's leader, she knew that she had to step up and take charge.

She kneeled down next to Sam, putting her hands on the bullet wound. She immediately starting shouting orders back at Chuck, "I need bandages ASAP. If you can, go find one of those rolly things, damn what are they called..."

"A gurney?"

"Yes! A gurney! See if you can find anything for pain. If you can't find anything quickly then don't bother, but its going to be a long way home," she called out, she then lowered her voice, "Sam, I know you're trying to be brave in the face of pain or whatever, but I know this hurts like a son of a bitch. You're allowed to scream. You're allowed to cry. Trust me on this, you'll feel better,"

He nodded, tears rolling down his face.

"Chuck, hurry up!" Jo yelled, using her free hand to rub Sam's head. She always appreciated when her mother did that for her when she was hurting, she could only hope he did too.

A few minutes had passed before Chuck got back to them with the supplies. Jo grabbed the bandages and began to apply them to the bullet wound, "Please tell me you got pain killers,"

"I couldn't find any, I'm sorry," Chuck apologized, tears starting to spring in his eyes too.

Jo shook her head, "No, you do _not_ get to cry. If you cry, I'll cry, and you do _not_ want me to start crying," she ordered him, as she worked "Please for the love of God, don't cry!"

"Okay, okay, do you need help?" he asked, blinking away whatever bit of tears he had.

"Help me get him onto here," she said, pointing from Sam to the gurney. She let her eyes meet Sam's, "Listen, I don't know how bad this is going to hurt, but it has to be done. You're a big guy, we can't carry you all the way back to camp," she smiled a little, trying to lighten the mood, "Just remember what I said before, okay?"

Once Chuck and Jo got themselves in position to pick Sam up, the looked at each other. Jo could feel the reality of the situation starting to set in. Sam was hurt. Bad. And Sam being hurt meant a string of bad events to follow. The vaccine was going to have to be put on hold. Mark would be mad about that. The people of the camp are going to freak the hell out. They got panicky when Derek got hurt, now one of the leaders is hurt. But what scared her the most was Dean... Dean was going to livid.

She shook the thoughts out of her mind. She had to hold out and be strong a little bit longer. She had to get Sam back to the camp, "On three... One... Two... Three,"

They heaved Sam up onto the gurney, he cried out in pain. He screamed and screamed. At this point a steady stream of tears was flowing down his face.

"I know, I know, let it out," Jo said, trying to reassure him as her and Chuck lifted the gurney up to carry it down stairs. Luckily they were only one story up.

They reached the bottom in about three or four minutes, finally able to roll the gurney to their meeting spot with Dean's team. Sam had mercifully passed out. Even though she told him he could cry, it was just too hard for her to hear it...

* * *

Dean sat under a tree with Charlie and Cas. They had been waiting for the other group for a few hours. Dean was beginning to get worried. Had something happened? Shouldn't they be there by now? He was starting to get a really bad feeling.

Charlie was the one to voice his thoughts, "How long should this be taking?"

"Not this long," Dean shook his head.

He could see the look of fear flash over Charlie's and surprisingly even's Cas' faces.

He looked down, closed his eyes, and wondered if praying would help the situation at all. He'd always hoped God was out there, watching them, keeping them safe, but at this point it didn't seem likely. God wouldn't have let Lucifer take things this far. He wouldn't have allowed the complete destruction of most of his creation. At least Dean didn't think he would. He had always wondered if God knew what was going on. After all, he didn't seem to be reaching out to anyone. Not even the angels had heard from him. Did God even know what was happening down there?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Charlie gasping, she stood up and bolted towards a figure running towards them. As his eyes adjusted, he realized it wasn't a figure, but a few figures. There were two people rolling what looked like a gurney. He stood up and followed her to them.

He could feel his heart sink deep into his chest when he realized that it was Chuck and Jo rolling an unconscious Sam to them. He started sprinting towards them, desperately needing to get to Sam's side, "What happened?"

Jo shook her head, "The Croats, they wouldn't stop... They were strong... We couldn't kill them fast enough." She paused, a tear rolling down her cheek, "I'm so sorry Dean,"

* * *

 **Alright, sorry this took so long. I didn't mean for that to happen, I got a bit busy, but better late than never yeah? So things are starting to pick up here, we're beginning to get to a very important plot point.**

 **I finally got Charlie in there, I've been trying to find a way to write her in for a while now. I'm not sure how good I did portraying her, but I tried my best :)**

 **There will be a very important character introduced in the next chapter. I'm sure you guys will be all over it.**

 **Other than that, thanks for reading! I love all of you! Tell me what you think! Feel free to drop a review, any feedback, good or bad, is extremely helpful! -XOXO**


	8. No Control

It was strange... He felt weightless. It was like he was floating, simply suspended in the darkness that surrounded him. He couldn't tell what had happened, where he was, or even who he was. He could feel nothing. It should have scared him, but he felt peaceful. The darkness around him was inviting, serene, relaxing. He liked it.

Suddenly, there was a spot of light ahead of him. The little bit of light was even more inviting than the darkness. He felt himself move to it. He didn't know why, but he wanted nothing more than to reach it. It seemed like he'd never reach it. He found himself pushing to get there, using every power in his being to make it as quickly as possible.

Then... He made it. And damn it was worth it. He could feel his memories flooding back to him. There were no painful memories of hunting, only the sweet memories of all that was good in his life. He closed his eyes and felt full of pure joy.

When he opened his eyes again, they were meet with the radiant and cool blue-grey eyes of Jessica Moore. His Jessica Moore. He smiled, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her into a tight embrace. He didn't want to let her go. She had been missing from his life for so long that now that he had her back, he wasn't going to risk losing her again. Small, happy tears ran down his face. He had found his Jess at last.

But while he was happy that he was with her, he knew it could only mean one thing.

He was dead.

"Sam, I missed you," Jess whispered, she was smiling.

"I missed you too," Sam replied, finally letting her out of his embrace.

Jess took his hand in hers, "How have you been?"

Sam shrugged, not really knowing how to respond, "Not good," He stated as he started to remember the bad memories, but he didn't mind because he was back with his Jess. None of it mattered anymore.

"What happened?" Jess put her other hand on his face, her face showing signs of worry.

"After you died... things took a bad turn," Sam shook his head, hating to have to say the word 'died'.

Jess gripped his hand a little tighter, "What happened, babe?"

Sam always felt like he could tell Jess how he was feeling. He knew she'd never judge him or hurt him. She always seemed to make it better, just by being there. There had been a few times that he'd almost came clean about the monsters and the family business. He never did though; he wanted to keep her mind innocent and her body safe. Now, he supposed it didn't matter, but there was just no need to tell her about it. He figured there'd be plenty of time for it later, "Well, my dad passed away, then..." he laughed a short laugh, "All hell broke loose," he couldn't help but think about how literal that was.

"I'm sorry, Sam," she said sincerely.

He looked her in the eyes, "Its all okay, we're here now,"

Suddenly, her eyes changed from sweet to something more sinister, "You know, I know about everything,"

He felt a pang of fear in the pit of his stomach, "What do you mean?"

"I know about everything. I know about the monsters that are out there. I know about the demon deals and hell. I know about your mother and the special children. I know about the angels in heaven. But most importantly I know about the apocalypse,"

Sam took a step back, "Jess, I'm sorry, I should have told you. I just wanted to keep you safe,"

"It obviously didn't work. Look where we are, Sam!"

"I'm so sorry, Jess," he felt his heart breaking, the woman he loved hated him.

"You know, it didn't have to be like this," she shook her head, pausing for a second, her whole demeanor changing "You could have said yes to me,"

Sam furrowed his eyebrows, "What?"

Jess seemed to disappear right before his eyes, turning into a completely different person. A person that he recognized as Lucifer, or at least the vessel of Lucifer. He was tricked; he should have known, "You're so easy, Sammy,"

Sam glared, "What do you want?"

"You know the answer to that. I want you to say yes two me. I can clean up the whole Croatoan mess and the snap of a finger. All I ask in return is you as my date to the prom," he smirked, crossing his arms.

"I'm not going to say yes," Sam replied.

Lucifer shook his head, "Sam, Sam, Sam. Playing hard to get. You do know that everyone, but you, and maybe Dean if Michael is as determined as I am, is going to die if you don't say yes?"

"Everyone's going to die if I do say yes. I like our odds better this way,"

The archangel shrugged his shoulders, "You might as well speed up the process, Sam. Think about it you're causing a lot of unnecessary suffering. You've got Dean all worried about you. Most of your camp is afraid of going outside the walls. My baby brother, Castiel, is hopped up on drugs. You've got the world so messed up that old Dad himself isn't even going to come and try to save it. Just give up, Sam. You've had your turn to fight, let me have mine,"

"Never, I'd rather have a broken world than no world at all," Sam wouldn't give in, no matter what.

Lucifer seemed to see this as he took a different approach, "How do you expect to keep living like this?"

Sam was slightly taken aback, "Mark's working on the vaccine-"

Lucifer cut him off, "Oh right, right. The vaccine. I almost forgot." He laughed, "It really is a good idea, it could work." He said, nodding, "But let me tell you something, Sammy. I created the virus. I'm the reason the world is the way it is. You know what that means?" He asked rhetorically, "It means that I am in control. I know what's going to happen before it happens. I can make sure this vaccine is never even made. Why do you think I sent those Croats to you and your team? Why do you think they only hurt you? Why do you think Dean suggested to split up in the first place? Huh? Because I am in control. I am in control and the only way to get out of this mess is for you to say yes to me." He paused for a few seconds, "I am going to ask one thing of you right now - Think about what I just said. Think it over long and hard. Think about your next move. I can make your life a living hell until you give me what I want." He gave one last smirk, "Checkmate, Sammy,"

* * *

Then all of the pain he had felt before raged through his body. He jolted awake, suddenly finding it very hard to breath. He tried to move, to sit up, to get up, but the was a pair of hands holding him down, "Sammy, quit moving! Mark! Help!"

He recognized Dean's voice and tried to calm down, but he was too shaken up. He reached up and grabbed Dean's arm and gripped it as hard as he could. He could feel himself moving, being jostled around. He didn't understand what was going on, all he could think of was his encounter with Lucifer.

He finally mustered enough strength to open up his eyes. The first thing he noticed was the sky. It was blue, bright and pretty, a lot like Jess' eyes. Then he noticed Dean, Chuck, and Jo. Dean was yelling at someone, Mark he supposed. Chuck was looking around, scared and confused. Jo was staring down at him, her eyes locking with his.

He could hear people's voices saying things like, "What happened?" or "Oh my God!" and even "Damn it, not again,"

Then suddenly he was inside what he assumed to be the infirmary.

"Dean, Castiel, Jo, help me get him onto a bed! Chuck, go get Bobby and Ellen!" He heard Mark's voice command, then he saw Mark look down at him, "Sam, I doubt this is going to feel good, but hang in there for me okay?"

He felt hands getting prepared to move him.

"On three, one... two... three!"

The he felt the pain intensify as he was put on to the bed.

He reached his hand out, "D-Dean?" He called out.

He felt Dean's hand wrap around his, "You're going to be okay Sammy," He wanted to look at Dean, but all he could focus on without the pain getting worse was the ceiling.

"Dean... Luc- Lucifer,"

That was all he could say before slipping out of consciousness.

* * *

Dean couldn't believe what was happening. How could he have been so stupid? He knew splitting up was a bad idea, yet he couldn't ignore it. It was like the idea was there in the back of his mind jumping up and town and screaming to be heard. Why wasn't he stronger than it? On a normal day, Dean wouldn't have even thought of it in the first place. It would have been Sam, and Dean would have said how stupid it was.

What was wrong with him?

He looked at Sam, laying unconscious while Mark tried to fix him. He had been pulled away from Sam by God knows who just a few seconds earlier. He wanted to sit with him, to hold his hand, to somehow make it all better just by being there, but an angry Mark had said, 'Someone get Dean, he's in the way,'

He wanted to scream.

He could hear the footsteps of someone approaching him. He turned to meet them.

It was Charlie.

He had always thought of Charlie as some young kid. He'd for some reason always had it in him head that she was some fragile doll. That she'd crack the second she was put under an ounce of pressure. Maybe it was the red hair, or her constant smile, Dean didn't know. All he knew was that he didn't want to ruin her happiness. When she had volunteered to be the eyes and ears of the civilians, he was surprised and a little disappointed. He'd hoped they'd get a big, strong guy. Or at least someone who looked like they could carry their own weight.

But as time passed, he had realized just how strong Charlie was. He had found out she was only a year or two younger than Sam, which surprised him. She was quick in all ways. She could think fast and run fast. She was so damn smart. She knew something about everything, which really came useful when trying to make decisions. She could read Dean too. Not only did she know what to say and how to say it, but she knew when to say nothing. All in all, Charlie was just so full of life and courage, she was almost like a Winchester. She was the little sister that Dean had never known he wanted.

"You hungry?" She asked, holding up a half of an orange.

Dean shook his head, "No thank you,"

"How you holding up?"

Dean shrugged, "Get back to me on that one,"

Charlie nodded, "Alright, I gotcha, you don't wanna talk. The least you could do for yourself if sit down though," she motioned for him to sit on one of the cots.

He sat, he didn't feel like arguing, "Okay,"

"Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"It's a free cot," Dean replied.

She sat next to him. They stayed silent, just watching Mark do different things, call out orders to Ellen, ask for different medications. Dean hated every second of it, but he knew if he'd left he would hate it even more. He couldn't fathom why this kept happening. Why did Sam always seem to get screwed over? Why couldn't he do his damn job good enough? He was supposed to protect Sam, not come up with the idea that might kill him.

Then he remembered what Sam had said - Lucifer. What did Lucifer have to do with this? Why was he suddenly on Sam's mind again? Well, Dean supposed, Lucifer was probably always on Sam's mind, just not enough to talk about it out loud with others around. What had happened in that damn hospital? Dean had to know. And not just Chuck and Jo's side of the story. He knew that Sam was attacked, but he wanted to know why. He wanted to know exactly what was going on. Sam seemed to know, Dean just needed him to get better so he could know as well. He needed revenge on whatever or whoever had hurt Sam.

"Damnit, Sammy," he put his head down. He could feel Charlie's hand lay on his back, rubbing small, silent circles. In that moment he was more than grateful for Charlie.

* * *

Mark was slightly pissed. He knew he shouldn't have let Sam leave. He knew something like this was going to happen. He should have fought harder. He supposed none of that mattered anymore, because Sam was there, and he was hurt. Bad.

From what Mark could tell when he had cut off the kid's shirt, he had a few broken ribs, a bullet would, a stab wound, a dislocated shoulder (which was going to be a bitch to pop back into place), a probable concussion and possible internal hemorrhaging. He really hoped there was no internal hemorrhaging, he didn't think he had the tools to fix that.

He decided to start with the GSW, or the gunshot wound. He wasn't surprised that it had caused a pneumothorax, or a collapsed lung. This was common for abdominal GSWs, they tended to suck air in. He cleaned off a needle and inserted a chest tube. He decided to leave the bullet inside, the human body can adapt to different metals fairly well, he just needed to make sure to give Sam antibiotics in order to prevent infection, "Ellen get me some antibiotics and put them on that table," he called out, pointing to a table at the end of Sam's cot. He took note in the fact that the wound was still bleeding so he didn't close it up. When Ellen returned with the antibiotics he said, "Ellen, please use this and apply pressure to the GSW. If he bleeds through it tell me," He handed her his jacket.

He then moved on to the stab wound which, thankfully, wasn't very deep. As his resident had told him during his intern year, every stab wound is a dirty one. He ran to go and get some saline, he thankfully found some fast. He was glad he didn't have to tap into the vaccine supplies yet, he'd rather not have to send anyone else out to get more. He cleaned out the stab wound and decided to close when he realized it wasn't doing any damage to any organs. He worked quickly, knowing he didn't have much time before he had to move on. He usually had an intern or resident stitch up things like this while he worked on the bigger problems, but now he didn't have that luxury. All he had was his hands, a sewing needle, and some clean fishing line.

When he finished the stitching, he moved back to the GSW. When Ellen took the jacket off of it, it appeared to have quit bleeding. He was extremely grateful for that small miracle. He went to work closing it up.

Next, he had to figure out how to deal with the broken ribs. Since he had no X-ray, it would be difficult to tell how many ribs were broken. He would have to go with his best instincts and assume that there were broken ribs. He racked his brain for any treatment options, only to come up with none. There was simply no way to treat broken ribs except pain medication and making sure the patient breaths.

Finally he moved to the head. It seemed that Sam was waking up, which Mark dreaded, "Ellen can you give him some morphine?" he asked as he checked his head for any signs which could indicate a skull fracture. Though he found a small bump, he didn't seem to find anything too severe, but he had to cover all basics, "I have a light to check your pupils, don't be alarmed, I'm going to shine it into your eyes for just a few seconds," he explained to Sam as he grabbed a flashlight, shining into his eyes. His pupils constricted normally.

He was relieved to be done with examining Sam. He didn't seem to find anything to life altering. Of course he'd be in for a hard couple of weeks, and the virus would have to be placed on hold. Again. But other than that he should be fine.

He realized he had blood all over his gloved hands. He moved to take them off and wash his hands. He needed a small break before returning to explain everything to Dean.

When he came back, he saw Dean sitting by his brother. Whispering and leaning towards him like he was telling him some amazing secret. Sam was seemingly asleep. Mark decided to let them be, he could explain what was going to happen to Dean later.

He stepped outside, it was dark. Time had gone by fast, like it always does when he's caring for a patient. It was dinner time. He could see Charlie and Chuck walking from the cafeteria with food, he assumed it was for Dean. He figured he should go get something, but he couldn't bring himself to. He was tired, and much to his dismay, he was nervous. Nervous of what was to come. Things seemed to be getting worse as the days rolled on. People kept getting hurt. There was tension everywhere he went.

They needed help.

Mark was a man of science, not a man of God. He couldn't believe in a higher power. Especially not a higher power who was supposedly looking out for them. If there was something up there, none of this would have happened. There wouldn't be a Croatoan virus. No God or angel for that matter would let that happen.

Mark was not a man of God, nor would he ever be, but that night... That night, he prayed.

* * *

 **So sorry this took so long. I was out of town for longer than I had anticipated, but it is finally up. We have some Lucifer in this chapter, which I think is exciting, but I guess its a matter of opinion. I also got a small dose of hurt Sam which I know at least some of you think that's exciting. We also got a slight bit of character development towards the end there. All very exciting stuff.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading! Feel free to drop a review! -XOXO**


	9. Dream On

That night, Mark slept uneasily. He was on edge about Sam, constantly worrying something would happen. So he had decided to sleep in the infirmary a few cots away from Sam and Dean. Dean had pulled up a cot as close to Sam as Mark would allow. For the first hour or so after they had turned the lights off, Mark just watched the brothers' silhouettes, slightly illuminated by the moonlight peering through the windows. When he realized that Dean was asleep, he decided to try and get some shut eye.

It felt like years later, but he was finally asleep, dreaming about something or another.

Then, much to his dismay, he woke up.

He opened his eyes, a bit pissed that it was still dark out. He turned his head, looking around to try and find some reason for his random awakening. Dean was still asleep and it appeared to him that Sam was still breathing, so that wasn't the problem. Nobody was moving around outside. No one else was awake which gave him an eerie feeling. He shook his head, deciding he just wasn't used to sleeping on a cot, and that all he needed was a bit of water and he'd be on his way back to dreamland in no time.

He made his way out of the infirmary and tip toed to the cafeteria. He snuck into the cafeteria, careful not to make any noise. When he was sure that he was in the clear, he strode to the where the water bottles were kept. He figured if he got caught, he'd just lie and say he needed them for Sam. Surely no one would question that.

Mark had just grabbed a few water bottles (one for him, the rest for Sam when he woke up, he might as well kill two birds with one stone) when he heard something, or somebody, shuffle behind him. His shoulders tensed. He really hoped it wasn't Emily or any of the other chefs. They seemed to be alarmingly protective over their supplies.

He slowly turned to see none other than the addict. He was relieved, but having a run in with the addict was never pleasing. He sighed, "Hello," he greeted quietly.

"Hello," the man greeted back.

"What are you doing here at this time of night?" Mark asked, instantly regretting it as that question could be turned right back on him. Hopefully the guy's brain was too fried to think of that.

Unfortunately, it wasn't, "I could be asking you the same question,"

He took a deep breath, all he wanted to do was go back to sleep, this was not helping, "I'm getting water for Sam," he partially lied.

"Is he awake?"

"No, I'm just thinking ahead,"

The addict, Castiel, nodded, "I see, that's an intelligent move,"

"I suppose so," Mark was starting to feel uncomfortable, "You never answered my question,"

Castiel started to shuffle a bit, "I couldn't sleep," he stated simply.

"Are you looking for something to _use_?" he asked, referring to the drug addiction.

No response. Mark took it as a yes.

"Dean's going to be angry,"

"Dean has enough on his hands,"

Mark shrugged, "He seems to care a great deal about you. I don't know what you two had going on before all of this, but I assume you were close?"

He again received to response. It was apparent that whatever was going down between Dean and the addict was none of his business.

"I'm going to go, if I were you , I would too. I doubt there's anything back there that would give you a decent high. But if I find that you've stolen any of my morphine, I will personally track you down and kill you. I'll make it look like an accident," he threatened. He knew he sounded cruel, but he'd let this guy slide with this for a year. It was time to put him in his place. It wasn't so much he cared about the guy's mental state, but more of his valuable medicine. Morphine has been on high demand as of late, he couldn't afford for it to be wasted.

He walked past Castiel and made his way back to the infirmary. After a long sip of water, he fell asleep in no time...

Only to wake up _again._ This was going to be a long night.

At least this time it was starting to get light outside. He sat up, figuring that he might as well just stay awake. He rubbed his eyes, again checking on the brothers. They hadn't moved since the last time he'd looked. He looked to the window, hoping to see somebody, anybody awake. He was shocked when he saw someone staring straight at him.

It wasn't a familiar someone. It was a blond-haired-blue eyed-there-was-definitely-something-up-with-that-guy someone.

His first thought was that one of the walls had fallen, or in their mad dash to save Sam, somebody had forgotten to close the gate, and now they were being invaded by Croats, but something about the man in front of him intrigued him. He had the mad look of an escaped prisoner, but also the calm look of a brave leader. All Mark knew was that he had to go see who this man was.

He crept out of the room, careful not to wake Dean. When the door closed behind him he waved slowly, "Uh, hi?"

"Hi,"

Mark furrowed his eyebrows, "Who... Who are you?" he asked, trying to sound confident.

"I won't tell you my real name yet so for now, call me Nick," he smiled, putting his hand out.

Mark shoot it, "Okay... Nick. What exactly are you doing here?"

"I'm an old... acquaintance of Sam and Dean's. Just dropping in to see how things are going," he said, his smile still plastered onto his face.

Mark was picking up some weird vibes from the man in front of him, but he had to know more, "Oh, I see. Well, they're sort of caught up at the moment. Now probably wasn't the best time to come. How did you find this place?"

"It doesn't take a genius, Mark,"

"How do you know my name?"

This made the man grin, "I know a lot of things, we need to chat. Why don't you take a walk with me?"

Mark couldn't bring himself to say no, "Alright,"

And so they started walking. They stayed silent for a few minutes until the blond man finally spoke up, "I'm an angel,"

"I see you think very highly of yourself," Mark said, slightly taken aback by his bluntness.

"No really, I'm an angel. Like an angel of the Lord. You know, halo, wings, the full package," he smirked.

Mark scoffed, "Right, and I'm God,"

"Now that's a lie, dear old Dad hasn't been around in a while," the 'angel' shook his head, "I know I don't look like it, but I'm an angel... Or archangel, but no need to delve into those petty details,"

"You're crazy,"

"Am not,"

"Are to,"

"Now we're starting to sound like children." the man laughed, "You prayed, I answered, what did you expect?'

Mark stopped walking. He was confused, "How did you know that I prayed?"

"Like I said, I know a lot of things,"

"I did the whole thing in my head... There was no way anyone heard me,"

The man smiled softly, "I'm an angel, Mark."

Mark glared, "If you're an angel then why don't you help us out?"

"I was planning to, in a way. I can help keep you and your people alive,"

Mark shook his head, "Then why haven't you done it already? I mean, I've never heard of angels actually answering prayers in person,"

"I needed your permission first,"

"Permission?"

The blond man, 'Nick', rolled his eyes, "Agh, humans, so slow all the time! I mean, I need you to be my vessel,"

"Vessel?"

"Oh my- Do I have to spell it out? Haven't Sam and Dean told you anything?"

Mark shrugged, "What are you talking about?"

"Okay, listen. I need you to be my vessel. Which means, I'll be inside you, you'll kinda be like my human mask. I can take control anytime I like, but since I'm nice I'll let you take the lead... Most of the time. I can make sure that everyone stays alive for you. I can even make you forget this conversation. But I need you to say yes,"

"Why do you want to do this so badly?"

'Nick', shrugged, "Let's just say I know a lot, but I really want to know more. You'll be like my eyes and ears,"

Mark crossed his arms, "Why haven't angels had a more substantial role in all of this? Couldn't you have say... stopped this all from happening?"

"That's a long story,"

"Aren't you guys supposed to protect us?"

"Again, that's a long story. Are you going to say yes or am I wasting my time?"

Mark took a deep breath, "Fine, but only under one condition,"

"What's that?"

"You tell me your real name."

The angel hesitated, "If you say yes, I will tell you,"

Mark narrowed his eyes, "Fine, yes, now what's your name?"

The angel smiled, "It's Lucifer,"

Mark's eyes widened as the literal devil started to glow. Everything turned white. He was overcame by this extreme coldness of the light surrounding him. And then... He woke up. With no recollection of his 'dream' and the strong urge to pee.

Maybe he shouldn't have gotten up for that water.

* * *

Dean opened his eyes. The sun was just starting to come up. He checked on Sammy. Still breathing, thank God. He turned to Mark. Still asleep, neat-o. He reverted all of his attention back to Sam. He took note of every cut and bruise on him. One of his shoulders had a bandage placed over a stab wound. The other was heavily wrapped to keep a dislocated shoulder from moving around. Mark had said something about it not cutting off blood supply, and waiting to pop it back in when he was sure that movement wouldn't hurt Sam any worse than he already was. That was going to suck. Sam also had a bandage over the bullet wound, and his ribs were bruising pretty badly. There was a tube that Mark had put in on the right side of his abdomen. Dean seemed to remember Mark saying he'd take that out around noon. His face had a few bruises here and there, but all in all he seemed okay. For a Winchester at least.

If Dean's predictions were right, Sam would be on his feet (with some help) again the next day.

He heard Mark starting to stir. Not turning he said sarcastically, "Morning sweetie, you sleep well?"

He could feel Mark glaring into the back of his head, "You've got some nerve,"

"How so?"

"You shouldn't have taken Sam out with you,"

Dean rolled his eyes, "How could I have known this was going to happen?"

"You couldn't have which is precisely _why_ you should have listened to me and not let him go. If he had stayed here, he'd be fine and we'd still be able to go on with the vaccine,"

Dean turned to Mark, "Are you serious? My brother almost died and all you care about is your freaking vaccine?"

"He wouldn't have almost died if you wouldn't have been so ignorant as to letting him go out there with you!"

"He came with me because I don't trust you enough to leave him here. Last time I did that, he passed out from freaking blood loss,"

Mark narrowed his eyes, "That was not my fault. I had no way of knowing he had lost blood not to long before I took that blood,"

Dean shook his head, "You should have asked, isn't that what doctors are supposed to do?"

"We aren't talking about then, we're talking about now. My point is, you were by no means thinking about the rest of the camp when you took him out with you. You know how valuable he is to the creation of this vaccine. Without him, we'd have no hope. We'd have no way to find a cure to the virus. We need his blood to-"

Dean cut him off, "You do realize he's a human being right? You realize that he's a brother, a friend, and though his parents aren't around, he's a son? He's a person man, a freaking person. And a loved on at that. I couldn't run this place without him. Hell I couldn't be here without him. He's more than just an ingredient to you're vaccine. He's my brother."

Mark just looked at Dean. He didn't seem to have a response to that one.

"Dean?"

Dean heard Sam awaken and reverted his attention back to him, "Rise and shine,"

Sam blinked a few times, "Water?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

Dean turned to Mark, his tone completely changed as he asked, "Do we have water?"

Mark nodded and tossed a water bottle to Dean.

Dean helped Sam drink some water. When he finished Dean put on a small smile, "How you feeling Sammy?"

"Been better," Sam replied, "Shoulder hurts,"

"I know, Mark's going to pop it back into place soon. You know how that goes," Dean explained.

Sam rolled his eyes, "Tha's gonna suck,"

"I know, but we'll get through it, we always do," Dean nodded, "Mark can you give Sam some meds?" Mark obeyed, giving Sam some morphine then logging it on a piece of paper.

Once he walked away, Sam looked to him, then back at Dean, "We need to talk," he whispered, out of Mark's earshot.

Dean nodded again, "Anyway, Mark was just getting us some breakfast. You hungry?"

Sam shook his head, "No thanks,"

"Alright, Mark, get me whatever they're having for breakfast. If you could, send Bobby or Cas over please,"

Mark started heading for the door, "Okay," he was pissed at Dean, Dean knew this, but that didn't give him right to say what he said next, "By the way, I ran into you're addict last night. Can you please pass the message that I would have stopped to talk longer but had to get back here?"

"He's not an addict, he's clean. I got him clean." Dean growled.

"You might want to talk to him about that," Mark said as he exited the room.

Sam quirked an eyebrow weakly, "What's got his panties in a wad?"

Dean crossed his arms, "He's mad at me for taking you on the mission. It's a big load of bullshit,"

Sam seemed to hesitate before he replied, "You know... He may have been right,"

"What do you mean?" Dean furrowed his eyebrows, leaning forward.

"When I was out, right after the attack. I had a dream,"

"And?"

Sam's lips pulled themselves into a thin line, "And I was visited by Lucifer,"

Dean's eyes widened, "What?" It made sense now. Sam tried to tell him earlier, but he didn't have the strength. The only thing that didn't make sense was how the hell did he not see this coming?

"He knew about the vaccine. He told me that all our attempts at fixing this were going to fail. And that he was in control." Sam made a confused face which would have been comical if he wasn't talking about Satan, "Then I think he said it was my move, I think he was talking about chess or something, I don't know." Dean could tell the pain meds were starting to kick in.

"Don't worry about that, we'll figure it out. Just go back to sleep for now. I'll be here when you wake up," Dean said.

What was he supposed to do? After over a year, Lucifer finally decides to make an appearance. What did that even mean? Were the angels coming back? Did this mean he was about to get threatened by Michael? He had no clue what was going to happen. For all he knew, war was about to break out. He needed to get his people prepared to defend themselves. He needed to get with Bobby and decide if it was time to come clean with the civilians about the angels, demons, and the rest of the things that go bump in the night. But most impotantly, he needed to do what he did best - Protect Sam at all costs.

* * *

Castiel was by no means happy to see Mark at breakfast. He had been caught last night in his nightly escapade to steal a bit of herbs from the kitchen. He had done it before. He had done it every night since Dean had taken everything else away. He liked the feeling they gave him, and they usually didn't leave much of a hangover, which made it easier to hide from Dean.

Of course, while on the mission to the pharmacy, he had stolen a few familiar drugs. He vowed to only use them when he really needed to, but it was comforting to know that they were always there. But for the time being, the herbs would suffice.

Once he had gotten caught by the chef, who's name he could never remember. He had explained to her that he was getting migraines and that the herbs were helping him. She didn't seem to believe him, but she let him continue on doing it. She even promised not to tell Dean. He appreciated the woman and all of her southern glory.

He had thought he'd never get caught until he saw the doctor rummaging through the water bottles. He had hoped be able to hide his intentions, but that was unfortunately not the case. The doctor was smart. He saw straight through them. He could only hope that he hadn't already told Dean.

When Mark approached him, he felt his spine tense up.

"Castiel, is it?"

Castiel nodded.

"Can you bring this to Dean?" he asked, handing him a tray of food.

"Yes," he replied wearily, he had no other choice.

"Don't worry, I haven't told Dean anything. I will though if you take anything from me," Mark explained.

Castiel nodded again, "Thank you... May I ask you something?"

"Go ahead?"

"Why not tell Dean? Don't doctors usually oppose drugs?"

Mark shrugged, "These are desperate times. As much as they disgust me, they help you. As long as you don't end up on one of my beds in the infirmary, it's not my problem,"

Castiel stood, the tray in his hands, "Thank you, I will bring this to Dean. He's in the infirmary I assume?"

"You assume correctly,"

And with that Castiel made the journey from the cafeteria to the infirmary, his nerves settled by the doctors words. If he had known what kind of wrath was to await him at the infirmary, he may have just told the doctor to take the tray himself.

* * *

 **Alright, so some big things happened. Cas isn't as clean as we had thought, and Mark has let in the devil. Of course, dear old Luci has promised to let Mark take the lead, but he's a pretty evil dude. Some of that is going to seep through.**

 **Anyway, I'd like to credit the inspiration and the promptness of me getting this chapter together to the lovely M. . I suggest you go check his/her account out because there's some pretty amazing writing on their!**

 **Well, thanks again for reading! I can't believe I got this together so fast. Knowing me, there's probably something fatally wrong with it, but no regrets right? HaHa, please tell me how your feeling about this? I love feedback! Thanks for reading! -XOXO**


	10. The Last Resort

Castiel stepped into the infirmary, tray in hand. He spotted Sam and Dean quickly. Sam looked, to put it nicely, like he'd been hit by a bus. He was so bruised and even though he was unconscious, Cas could see the pain etched onto his face. It was times like this one that made Cas want his grace back. He wanted to be able to heal Sam. It hurt that he couldn't.

He turned his attention to Dean, who hadn't seemed to notice his presence yet. As to be expected, Dean had lines of worry and concern marking his face. Cas hated that he couldn't fix this problem. Had this happened a year ago, it wouldn't have been a big deal. Cas could have simply put two fingers on Sam's forehead and this crisis would have been avoided.

"Dean?" he called out, apparently louder that he had thought as Dean flinched a bit, "I brought some food,"

Dean looked up at Cas, "Damnit, Cas. You can't sneak up on people like that,"

"I'm sorry," he apologized, holding the tray out for Dean to take.

As he took the tray, Dean eyed Cas suspiciously, "So..." he seemed to hesitate before asking, "Everything's all good right? Nothing's going on that I could know about?"

Cas tensed up a bit, he hoped it wasn't noticeable, "No, why?" He hoped this wasn't about the drugs. Mark had said he didn't say anything, but Cas could never be too sure.

"I have a bad feeling," Dean replied shortly.

"Oh, okay," Cas didn't know what to say. He figured this situation would be what humans call 'awkward'.

Cas had known Dean for a few years. He could read him fairly easily. He could tell that Dean was on edge about something, and was trying to make a decision about it without showing he was on edge about something. Dean had a very complex mind which made it difficult to tell exactly what he was thinking, but Cas could see this much.

Dean furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms, he took a deep breath and sighed, "With Sam the way he is, I might need help taking care of him. Would you mind staying in our cabin to help me out?"

Cas was taken aback, he had thought Dean would confront him about using again. Maybe Mark hadn't said anything about it, Cas smiled, "I wouldn't mind at all,"

Dean nodded, "Thank you, you're a lifesaver,"

"I wouldn't so far as to say I'm saving either of your lives, I'm simply-"

"Figure of speech Cas,"

Cas nodded, "Right,"

He hear the door open to reveal Mark, "Hey boys. I figured now would be a good time to get his shoulder back into place since he's got plenty of morphine in his system,"

Dean put a hand on Sam's arm, shaking it gently, "Hey Sammy, Mark's going to fix your shoulder. Just a heads up,"

Sam groaned as he woke up, "Now?"

"Yes, now, get ready,"

Mark walked over to Sam's side, unwrapping the bandage that held his shoulder in place, "Alright Sam, have you ever had a shoulder dislocation before?"

"Yeah,"

"Good, so you know how this goes. Dean, you won't get queasy right? I assume you're good to stay in here?" Mark asked, looking up.

Dean nodded, "I've fixed that kid shoulder plenty of times before."

"What about you Castiel?"

Cas nodded, "I'll be fine, I've seen worse," he replied.

"Perfect," Mark sounded subtly annoyed, "Okay, here we go," He grabbed Sam's wrist and moved his arm to about a 90 degree angle from his chest. Then he pulled slowly. Sam clearly didn't like this, he was trying his hardest not to shout out. Then it was all over with the sound of a satisfying _clunk._ Sam did shout out then.

Dean had Sam's other hand, muttering reassurances to him, "There you go, good job. You're all done now. Wasn't that hard was it?"

Mark then moved to take out the chest tube in Sam's chest. Cas wondered what its function was. Human medicine had always fascinated and disgusted him at the same time.

When Mark was finished, he stepped back, "You can stay here as long as you need, but please don't leave just yet. You need a sling, and it has come to my attention that we don't have any. I have already sent out a few people to go get one. After they come back, you're free to do as you please,"

Dean glared, "You sent out a team without me?"

"You are in no condition to leave the camp,"

"Why didn't you at least tell me?"

Mark rolled his eyes, "You were preoccupied. I have one job here today, take care of Sam. Telling you about everything I do wasn't one of my priorities,"

Dean crossed his arms, "Fine, who did you send out?"

"Ellen, Jo, Bobby, Charlie, and Derek,"

"Derek as in, no hand Derek?"

Mark nodded.

"Why?"

"He was ready, he's almost completely healed, and Bobby approved. There's a strong team with him, don't worry about it,"

Dean continued to glare but didn't say anything.

Cas didn't know who's side to take on this argument. Mark had a valid point, but Dean was... well Dean. He decided there was no need to butt in. At this point it seemed like the two were arguing just to argue.

* * *

Later that night, Dean, Cas, and Bobby were helping Sam make it to dinner. It wasn't a far walk, but at the rate they were moving, it was a good thing they had left early. Sam was relieved he was up and walking. Though it hurt like hell, he had to prove to himself that he wasn't weak. That he still had his fight left in him.

Bobby had offered Sam to use his old wheelchair, but Sam quickly denied it. When they had first started the camp Bobby was in the wheelchair, but after a run in with Crowley, they came out on top, and Bobby was up and walking again. They hadn't seen Crowley since then, Sam wondered where the little guy was. Suddenly it seemed that King of the Crossroads was dead. No one had heard from him and Sam wondered if Lucifer had killed him to punish him for his attempt to murder him.

They finally reached the cafeteria, after ten minutes of agony. Bobby went ahead of the rest of the group. He raced up the stairs into the cafeteria, they had built it on stairs in case of flooding, this way the food would be kept safe. Bobby then made his way to the nearest table. It was full of people, "You idgits are gonna have to move,"

"Why?" one questioned innocently.

"Don't question me, just go," he ordered.

Sam laughed at Bobby's 'I'm-not-taking-any-of-your-shit' tone. While he hated making people move, he was grateful for the power Bobby had to force them away. He was climbing stairs in his condition, there was no way he'd make it all the way to the back at their usual table.

At the top of the stairs, they stopped to take a breather. Reluctantly, they started moving again. As mentioned before, Sam was grateful for the close table. As they walked in, people started turning their heads. In awe that Sam was already up. He had taken a bad beating. He knew this. But he had experience with getting his ass kicked. He'd been hunting all his life. This was just like the times when a monster would get a few too many hits on him. He was used to it. He realized that most of these people had never been in a fight. That they had no idea what was out there. He felt obligated to tell them everything. Things were getting to dangerous not to.

Dean and Sam sat down as Bobby and Cas promised to bring them their food. Dean looked to Sam, "You alright?"

"Oh, just wonderful," he replied with a laugh.

Dean rolled his eyes, a smile on his face, "You are going to eat right?"

"I'm planning on it, I guess we'll have to see," he shrugged.

Ellen and Jo sat down next to them, "Good to see you up Sam,"

"Thanks, Ellen. It's good to be up," he lied.

They sat in a comfortable silence until Bobby and Cas reached their table.

"Thanks Cas," Dean said as he started eating his dinner.

"You're welcome Dean," Cas replied.

Bobby handed Sam his tray. He gave Sam a you-better-eat-your-damn-dinner look. Sam smiled, and obeyed, taking a bite of his soup.

After the usual bickering and joking around took place, Sam decided to pitch his idea to the group, "I really think we need to tell the rest of the camp about what's really going on,"

The group was silenced by this. Millions of thoughts raged through each of their heads. Sam watched them, hoping somebody would say something, anything. Finally after what seemed like ages to Sam, Ellen spoke up, "I agree with you, but we've only just recently dropped a bomb on them about the vaccine. Do you really think its a good idea to drop another one?"

"What else are we going to do? I mean, things are getting bad, fast. I have a feeling that something big is coming our way," he looked to Dean, hoping he'd take a hint and back him up. He was worried about Lucifer. After a year of silence, he's suddenly back, taunting Sam and haunting is dreams. He didn't want to tell the rest of the group but he had a feeling he was going to end up needing to.

Jo shook her head, "We've just had some really shit luck. I think we'll be fine for a while. We'll get the vaccine ready and we'll be in the clear. There's no need to scare everybody over nothing,"

Dean seemed to get Sam's message, "I agree with Sam. We've gotta tell them. I have a feeling our bad luck isn't through yet, and we need to get the camp prepared to defend itself,"

Sam groaned internally.

Bobby narrowed his eyes, "Defend itself against what? What are you hidin' boy?"

Dean looked at Sam, Sam just closed his eyes and nodded. Dean sighed, "Lucifer is back,"

The whole table tensed up, "What do you mean?" Cas asked.

"He means, that after a year of laying low, Lucifer's back. He came to me when I passed out. He told me some things," Sam replied.

Bobby crossed his arms, "What kind of things?"

"Well, he knows about the vaccine. He said it was a good idea, but it won't work because he's in complete control, which is why every time we start making progress on the vaccine something happens. He said the only way for us to get out of this mess is for me to say yes," Sam explained.

After a few seconds of thinking, Cas asked, "What about Michael?"

Dean shook his head, "I've heard nothing yet,"

"So are we going to tell or not?" Sam questioned.

Everyone looked to Bobby. In the end he was the one who'd have to deal with whatever fallout. He was the leader of the camp. Everyone knows that nothing happens without Bobby's say. Most assume that everything Sam and Dean do is under Bobby's command. If the people are scared, they'll cry to Bobby. If they sad, they'll ask Bobby to fix it. If they're mad, they'll take it out on Bobby.

Bobby took a deep breath, "Someone go get Chuck. He'll tell them,"

Jo stood up and strode to wear Chuck was sitting for the day. She whispered something in his ear then they walked back swiftly. Chuck sat down in an empty chair, leaning forward, "What do I say?"

Bobby shrugged, "Hell if I know, just tell 'em everything. Start small, with spirits then move up from there."

"Do I talk about the angels?"

Bobby nodded, "Yeah, but don't say that Cas is one. That might freak 'em out,"

Chuck bit his lip, "Okay, when do we tell them?"

"Sooner rather than later," Bobby answered.

Sam looked around, everyone seemed to be there, "Why not now?"

"Now?" Chuck's eyes widened.

"There's a good reason behind all of this, we'll fill you in after," Sam said.

Chuck stood up, nodding. Then he cupped his hands over his mouth, "Everyone, can you turn your attention to me?"

Ellen yanked the bottom of his shirt. He leaned over as she whispered in his ear, "Make sure to apologize for not telling them sooner,"

"Got it," he whispered back before addressing the crowd, "What I'm about to say is going to be hard to believe. You have to trust me, trust us," he gestured towards the table, "So, there are a lot of stories and myths about, well, ghosts and other monsters. Most of which, are true. I'm sorry for not telling you earlier, we thought we should keep it secret, but now we are realizing-"

He was interrupted by a middle aged man who Sam didn't know, "Bullshit! You've gone crazy haven't you?"

"Here me out, its going to all make sense in a few minutes," Chuck put his hand out as if motioning for him to shut up, "Anyway, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, wendigoes, etc., are all real. There's a group of unsung heroes that are called hunters that go and track these things down and kill them. Sam and Dean, Bobby, Ellen and Jo, and Castiel are all hunters," he explained, quickly adding Castiel to the back of the list.

"Why have we never heard of hunters?" Emily, the chef, asked.

"Because they're good at what they do. A lot of the time they can get in and out before you even realize there's a problem. It's a dangerous job. They go in, try to find the source of the problem and then nip it at the bud. They go through some awful stuff," he looked at Sam and Dean, "Again, still sorry about the bugs,"

"Not your fault," Dean replied.

Chuck continued, a small smile on his face, "But they do it all to keep people like you safe,"

"Why don't we all know about monsters?"

"Again, its because they're good at their jobs,"

"Well, what all is out there?" asked a teenaged girl.

"A lot of things, poltergeists, spirits, vampires, werewolves, sirens, wendigoes, shapeshifters, that's just to name a few of the lesser threats. There are also demons. They are a little more powerful. And then there are the angels. They have the most power,"

The teenaged girl asked, "So angels are real?"

Chuck nodded, "Yes, angels are very real?"

The girl shook her head, "Then why are we here?"

Chuck sighed, "Are you familiar with the book of Revelations?"

The girl nodded.

"The biblical apocalypse was supposed to happen. It was set in stone to happen. Its actually still supposed to happen, but Sam and Dean here have stopped it for the most part." Chuck said.

"So is that why the virus is out there?" she questioned.

"While the boys have stopped the apocalypse for now, Lucifer did still rise. He set off the Croatoan virus. We're trying to stop it, as you know, but we're still trying to figure it out,"

The girl narrowed her eyes, "When you were talking about hunters earlier, you didn't mention yourself. How do you know about all of this stuff?"

"You're a smart girl." Chuck nodded, "You see, I was a prophet. I knew what was going to happen before it happened. I actually wrote some books, the Supernatural series that turned out to be a perfect narrative of Sam and Dean's lives," he laughed a little, "But that not important, what is important is that everyone learns about this stuff and learns to protect themselves,"

The room was silent.

"If anyone has any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to speak up," Chuck said, quite awkwardly.

Emily shook her head, "I can't believe this, can you people just leave my cafeteria? I think I'm speakin' for all of us when I say we need time to think this over,"

There were many people in agreement.

Sam took this as his queue to leave. He slowly stood up, Dean by his side. The two of them started to leave the cafeteria, followed by the rest of his group. Together they made their way to Sam and Dean's cabin. Sam laid down on his bed and put his hands behind his head. Dean and Cas sat on Dean's bed. Bobby, Ellen and Jo took a place on the floor against the wall. And Chuck leaned against the door.

"That went well," Dean muttered sarcastically.

Chuck was looking out the window straight towards the cafeteria, "I wonder what they're talking about?"

Sam furrowed his eyebrows, "They haven't left yet?"

Chuck shook his head, "No,"

Jo ran a hand through her hair, "I can ask Charlie what happened tomorrow," she suggested.

"Good idea," Sam nodded.

Ellen ran a hand over her face, "I don't know if I want to go out there,"

"Why?" Jo asked.

Ellen shrugged, "I just don't like the idea of being so close to people who most likely don't trust us anymore,"

Dean spoke up, "Everyone needs to stay here tonight, just until we find out what's going through their heads."

"Is that alright with you guys?" Bobby asked.

"Its fine by me, Cas was already going to be staying over here, why not add a few more to the party," Dean replied.

Ellen looked at Sam, "How 'bout you, Sam?"

Sam nodded, slowly, he was worn out. He honestly didn't give a damn if they stayed or not. All he knew was that he was about to fall asleep, "Good with me," he muttered. The last thing he heard before drifting of into sleep was the voices of his friends planning their next move.

* * *

 **Wow, okay, my bad. Its been a while. I'm sorry. How've you guys been? I'm sooo sorry for not updating- I have four brothers and they came to visit me, (yes, all four) so its been a crazy couple of days. I guess this kind of evens out the super fast update last time, but I think I'm just trying to make excuses for myself.**

 **ANYWAY I hope you enjoyed this. I'm really trying to get everything set up before some real stuff happens, but its taking longer than I'd hoped. I hope you like this chapter. There's definitely a lot of tension now that the cat's out of the bag.**

 **Anywho, feel free to drop a review, I appreciate and love everyone who reads this story, but I really love those who give me some feedback (good or bad haha)**

 **Thanks for reading! -XOXO**


	11. More Than a Feeling

The line between good and bad seemed to become unrecognizable over the course of the next few days. In the beginning, it was clear - the camp against all of the outside evils. But that clarity has slowly faded. It seemed that everybody had different opinions. Some were placing all of their trust into Sam and Dean, as they had done for months. They figured it had been working well for so long that changing it would be too hard. Others believed what Chuck had said but had been weary of the group. They couldn't trust people that had kept something so big from them for so long, after all, who knew what else they were hiding. Finally, the last group were the ones who thought their once courageous leaders had gone crazy. That they had finally snapped under the pressure of keeping the camp up and running and had told some insane lie to try and compensate for it. These were the people that bothered Dean the most.

He was afraid they would try and leave or even take over the camp. He needed to do anything and everything he could to keep everyone safe, but he had a feeling that this group was going to make that difficult.

A few days had gone past since the big reveal of the truth. Since then, everyone had gone back to their cabin's, aside from Cas of course. Dean had a bad feeling about Cas. The angel had sworn he'd cut the drugs out, but after what Mark said, he was having his doubts. All Dean wanted was his old friend back. He needed to make sure that Cas was okay.

Dean had given Cas his bed, hoping that he would somehow be guilted into getting clean if Dean was nice enough. Dean knew this was irrational, but he didn't care.

He was laying in his pallet on the floor, thinking of everything he could possibly think about. His body was tired but his mind was still running wild. He laid as still as he could, trying to coax himself to sleep. Nothing seemed to work. He tried to sync his breathing up with Sam's... Then with Castiel's. He tried sleeping with no blanket. He tried sleeping with no pillow. Hell, he even tried counting sheep. The night was almost over and nothing seemed to be working and it was driving him crazy.

Then, he heard a rustle coming from either Sam or Cas. He heard feet quietly hit the ground. If he had been asleep there was no way it would have woken him up. Then he heard those feet stealthily step towards the door. The feet were too light, too agile to be the those of his injured brother so they had to belong to Cas. He heard the door creak open and then close again. The footsteps were gone.

He opened his eyes, quickly scanning the room. Cas was gone. Dean furrowed his eyebrows, _what the hell?_ He slowly got up from where he was laying on the floor. Quietly, he tip-toed to the door, making sure not to wake Sam. He cracked the door open and slipped out into the night.

He was grateful for the full moon as he looked for any signs of Cas. He saw the figure of a man walking towards the infirmary. Assuming it was Cas, he followed just far enough behind to not be noticed.

He had followed Cas all the way to the front of the building when another figure met with him. Dean came to a stop, quickly dodging out of sight. He kept an eye on the two. Thankfully, he could just make out the conversation.

"Castiel," the familiar voice of Mark said. It sounded just like Mark, but colder, more sinister.

"Mark?" Castiel's voice replied.

Mark scoffed in a way that Dean had never heard him scoff before, "That's my name, have the drugs finally fried your brain passed the point of no return?"

Cas stayed silent.

"I assume you're going to go take something from my cabinet, correct?" Mark asked.

Again, silence.

"Don't think I don't know what's going on. Herbs from the kitchen aren't cutting it anymore, and you've run out of whatever you had stolen before. Am I right?" Mark's voice was so menacing, "You didn't think you'd get caught did you?"

Dean wanted to step in, to say something so bad. He couldn't move though. It was as if someone was holding him hostage. Like someone more powerful that he was knew he was there and didn't want him to intervene.

"Do you remember what I had said about that?"

"I didn't go through with it,"

Mark laughed, "That's right, you didn't. But if I hadn't have been here, you would have,"

"I'm sorry, it won't happen again," Cas apologized.

It didn't seem to be enough for Mark, his fist went flying straight into Cas's face, "I swear, if you shout out..." he threatened as he hit him again and again and again... Dean couldn't bear to watch it for one more second. Just because Cas couldn't scream, it didn't mean he couldn't, "Cas! Cas! Hang in there!" He didn't know why he couldn't just move. He didn't know what was holding him back.

Mark stopped, looking up at Dean, then ran back to his cabin, a wicked smile on his face.

Dean felt whatever was holding him back suddenly let go. He ran to Cas, who was laying on the ground. He could hear people coming out of their houses. Watching him.

"Cas, look at me alright," Thankfully, Cas was still conscious.

"Dean, I'm sorry," Cas said, shaking his head, his bruised eyes full of shame.

"It's fine, we'll talk about that later," Dean replied, using his sleeve to wipe a bit of blood from Cas's nose.

He heard footsteps approach him, "What the hell happened?" Jo's voice asked.

"That damned doctor, that's what happened," Dean grumbled, helping Cas sit up.

Jo shook her head, "What do you mean? Mark?"

"Yeah, Mark. Mark's the one who did this." he made sure to say it loud, hoping that everyone watching heard. Mark seemed to be the big bad leader of the group that didn't believe the Winchesters.

Jo leaned in and whispered, "Why didn't you step in?"

"I couldn't, I don't know why, but something's up. I physically couldn't go and help," Dean muttered back.

Jo furrowed her eyebrows as Charlie walked up behind her.

A middle aged man, who seemed to be a good friend of Mark's walked over, "What do you mean Mark did this? He's still in his cabin asleep," he questioned skeptically.

Dean looked up, "Jo, Charlie, help Cas out," he stood up and strode to Mark's cabin. He banged his fist hard against the door, "Open up!"

He was greeted by a 'groggy' Mark, "To what do I owe this pleasure, Dean?"

Dean scoffed, "You've got to be kidding me! You're really going to play that card?"

By this time, the sun was starting to rise, and more and more people were being awakened by the commotion outside. They had an audience.

"What card?"

"The 'I-have-no-idea-what's-going-on' card!" Dean glared.

Mark shook his head, "I'm sorry, but what exactly are you so angry for?"

"Are you serious? You just beat the shit out of Cas and now you're pleading ignorance?"

"Woah, woah, woah," Mark laughed, "You think that _I,_ Mark O'Brien, beat up your drug addict friend?"

Dean was in awe, "I saw you do it!" he turned around to the group of people listening in, "I swear, he was the one who did this!"

Mark pushed past Dean, "I was asleep just a few minutes ago,"

Dean glared, "Bullshit, show me your fists," He grabbed Mark's wrist, hoping to prove he had done it by showing the crowd his bloody or bruised knuckles. Somehow though, his knuckles were clean, "What? What the hell?"

Mark looked at Dean, his eyes amused, "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked slightly sarcastically.

"You gotta believe me! I watched him! I watched him do it!" Dean shook his head, trying to think of any plausible reason for his knuckles not to be messed up.

Mark then addressed the crowd, "Who are you going to believe? Me, the man who was asleep during the attack? Or them, the ones who are trying to tell us that the stories about the supernatural are real?"

It was that statement that swayed the crowd to Mark's side.

Dean glared, walking back to Cas. He helped him stand up and started to walk back to his cabin. Just as they walked through the door, Sam was starting to wake up. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times, like he was trying to blink the tired away. He looked over Dean and Cas and narrowed his eyes, "What happened to you?"

Dean, still angry, replied, "Mark is what happened, he was hitting Cas and somehow proved that he didn't do it. I watched him!"

Sam looked confused, "Was it Mark, Cas?"

Cas nodded, "It was most definitely Mark, yes,"

Sam shook his head, "How did he prove it wasn't him?"

Dean flared his nostrils, "His knuckles weren't bloody and they should have been,"

Cas shuffled his feet little, "I wasn't going to mention this, but now I feel I should," he paused, "Though it looked like Mark, it didn't feel like Mark,"

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"His presence wasn't the same, it felt as if... someone else was in control," Cas explained.

Sam looked at Cas, "Like who?"

Cas shook his head, "I have no idea, if I still had my grace I would be able to tell,"

Sam and Dean sat in silence, both minds trying to wrap around what Cas had just said. What was that supposed to mean?

"Are you saying... that Mark is possessed?" Dean questioned slowly.

"It seems to be the most probable option,"

"By what then? We haven't heard from a demon since Crowley bolted, and the angels have been AWOL since Lucifer set off the virus," Dean explained. It was true. The last they had seen any demon was when Crowley gave Bobby his ability to walk back then bolted when he caught wind of Lucifer wanting to set the virus off. After that, Sam and Dean had the plan to put Lucifer back in the cage using the rings of the four horsemen, but somehow he figured it out. In an act of rage he unleashed the Croatoan virus to try and destroy humanity. They had assumed it was in order to leave Sam and Dean with nothing left to fight for, inevitably forcing them to give in to letting the apocalypse happen.

"That's what we need to find out," Cas said.

Dean tilted his head, "Could it be Lucifer?"

Sam shook his head, "Its possible, but I don't think he'd be so quiet about it. He'd be in my face telling me to say yes or he'll kill everyone in the camp,"

"Are you sure it wasn't just Mark?" Dean questioned, turning to Cas.

Cas shrugged, "Like I said, it was a feeling. If I had my grace, I'd be able to tell you for sure,"

Dean ran a hand down his face, "What the hell is going on?" he asked in frustration, "We need to talk to Bobby,"

* * *

Bobby Singer was going crazy. Not only did he have ignorant people knocking on his door, asking why they had told them the so called 'nonsense about ghosts', but he had the ones who believed them following him around like lost puppies asking more and more questions about anything and everything. On top of that, he had to worry about the growing tension between Dean and the doctor, Sam's injuries, and according to Dean he needed to be aware of the possibility that Cas may be using again. He couldn't imagine why all of this happened at one time.

He needed a few hours of alone time to sort everything out. A few hours where people weren't breathing down his neck asking what was going to happen next. A few hours where no one could complain to him about anything. A few hours where he could actually think a coherent thought. And by God he was going to get it. He didn't care what Dean had to say when he heard his familiar voice knocking on that door.

"Bobby!" he heard Dean pounding, "Bobby we have a problem!"

Of course they had a problem, they always had a problem, "What, Dean?" He yelled as he opened the door.

"Mark kicked Cas' ass last night,"

Bobby raised his eyebrows, "Mark did what?"

"He attacked Cas last night. He's denying it, but I saw it,"

Bobby took a deep breath, "Are you sure you saw what you think you saw?"

"Positive,"

"Okay, what does everybody else think?"

"They believe Mark. In case you haven't noticed our credibility to most of the camp is weak,"

Bobby nodded, "Shit,"

"That's not all though,"

Bobby closed his eyes, _of course it isn't_ , "Shit,"

"Cas said that it was Mark, but he felt something else. He wasn't exactly sure but he thinks Mark might be possessed,"

"Possessed? By what?"

Dean shrugged, "He doesn't know,"

"Damnit,"

"I know. What should we do?"

Bobby shrugged, "No idea, son. We're probably just goin' to have to ride it out. There's nothin' we can say without makin' it worse,"

"Damn Bobby, I hate this,"

Bobby agreed, "I do too. Why don't you and Cas bring Sam over here, and I tell go and try to get everyone over here? We need to stick together, things are gettin' too dangerous. I'd say we stay at your cabin, but my place is bigger, closer to the gates, and farther away from everyone else,"

"Sounds good to me," Dean replied, walking back to his cabin. Bobby hated how badly things had gotten. One of their strongest men was down when they needed him the most, another was most likely drugged halfway to heaven and lying about it, and the camp was starting to doubt their leadership.

Bobby found Ellen quickly, immediately explaining Dean and his plan to her. Together they walked around the camp, looking for Jo and Chuck, the remaining members of the group. They found Jo first, she usually doesn't stray too far from her mother. They then found Chuck. Both seemed happy with the idea of staying at Bobby's. As they walked to Bobby's cabin, they met up with Sam, Dean, and Cas, who were slowly making their way over.

Bobby felt a little more relaxed now that all of them would be together under the same roof.

This relaxation was of course quickly cut off by the sound of a strong, continuous _bang, bang, bang,_ at the front gate. Bobby and Dean made quick eye contact, and as if they had read each other's minds, leaped into action. Dean let Chuck replace him at Sam's side. Bobby motioned for Jo, Chuck, and Sam to go inside and for Ellen and Cas to make sure nobody came close the gates. Then Bobby and Dean ran to gate.

Bobby hoped and prayed that whatever was on the other side wasn't an angel or a demon. He had one hand on his knife and the other on his flask of holy water he carried around for occasions much like this one. He handed the flask to Dean whispering quietly in his ear, "You're the stronger fighter. I'll open the gate, you prepare to attack if need be. Got it?"

Dean nodded, putting on the face of a warrior and getting into position to fight.

When Bobby saw he was ready, he opened the gate. Keeping his eye out for anyone who may be out there.

When he saw the small group of people before him, he was confused. His eyes were first drawn to a short, blonde teenaged girl, then to a short haired middle aged women, then an Asian teenaged boy, a dorky guy who looked to be around thirty, and finally to the familiar face of a man he had thought to be dead. He was in awe. How the hell did he find this place? Who the hell were these people with him?

He must have been staring longer than he had thought because the man broke out into a smile, "Who'd have thought I'd see the day when I left Bobby Singer speechless?"

Bobby shook his head, "Rufus Turner, I'll be damned,"

* * *

 **Okay. Sorry. I suck at updating, I know. I don't even have an excuse for this one. I'm just sorry.**

 **Anyway, there's a hint of the evil I mentioned earlier seeping out of Mark in here. This was also to show that though Castiel is still technically an angel, he just isn't strong enough to see Lucifer through Mark. What do you think of the group coming at the end? Who do you think they are? I'm sure you'll be able to guess who a few or even all of them are pretty easily!**

 **Thanks for reading though! Drop a review with what you think! -XOXO**


	12. Hell's Bells

Bobby led the new group to his cabin (of course, only after preforming the standard test of holy water, silver, etc). And while he was glad to see his old friend, he had many questions for him. He opened the door to his humble abode and stepped aside for the group to go in before him. Rufus smirked, "Shucks Bobby, the apocalypse has turned you into a real gentleman,"

Bobby rolled his eyes at that, "What the hell are you doin' here Turner?"

"We've been hidin' out at a hospital a town or two over. A few days ago I could have sworn I saw Sam, but I figured it was nothin' more than a rogue so I let it be. Yesterday, we got attacked by a bunch of the bastards. We lost two people, the little one's mom and boy's mom. We had to leave. We found some tracks of some wheels and followed them here. Don't worry though, we covered the tracks along the way, no one else should be able to find us." Rufus explained.

Bobby nodded, "Alright, introduce us to these people,"

"This is Jody Mills, she was a Sherriff before all this," he said pointing to the middle aged woman, "The little one is Claire Novak, the boy is Kevin Tran, and this guy," he chuckles, "Is Garth. He's a hunter believe it or not,"

Dean furrowed his eyebrows, his eyes lingering on the little girl for a few seconds before asking, "You were at the hospital when Sam was there?"

Rufus shrugged, "I guess so, why?"

Dean gestured to Sam who was sitting up in Bobby's bed listening intently to the conversation, "He got his ass kicked while they were there,"

Rufus was taken aback, "By who?"

"Some Croats," Dean replied.

Sam butted in, "Speaking of Croats, what all do you know about them?"

"We've been callin' 'em rogues. We know if you get to close they can turn you, but we're not sure how. It happened after the cage was opened so it must have somethin' to do with all this Lucifer business," Rufus explained, "What about you? What do you know?"

"They turn you with blood to blood contact. It takes a few hours and we have figured out that amputation can stop it from spreading," Sam replied. Bobby noticed he didn't mention the vaccine.

Bobby said, "We should probably announce that you are new camp recruits to the rest of the camp," he looked to Chuck.

"I'm on it," Chuck stood up and left the cabin.

"I'll go with him," Dean stated, following Chuck out.

Bobby pulled Rufus to the side, whispering, "How much do your people know?"

"Everything. I thought it'd be easier for everyone in the long run. How 'bout yours?"

Bobby sighed, "We just told them about hunting a few days ago,"

Rufus shook his head, a small chuckle escaping his throat, "Bobby, you dumbass,"

* * *

Dean couldn't place how, but he recognized that little girl. He tossed her name around in his head, trying to figure out where from. Claire Novak. Claire Novak. He couldn't figure it out. He had to figure it out and there was no way he'd be able to do it with Bobby and Rufus going on about everything.

"So, Dean. What do you think of the newbies?"

Dean shrugged, "I'd have to say they're probably better off outside the camp,"

"I can't say I disagree. Rufus is a hunter right?"

Dean nodded, "Yep, him and Bobby used to hunt together,"

"Are we going to tell the camp that he's a hunter?"

Dean furrowed his eyebrows. That was a good question. He wished Chuck didn't ask that, "I say we leave that part out. That way we aren't lying, but we aren't making them think we've gone dingo ate my baby crazy."

Chuck laughed, "Don't you think they already think that?"

Dean smirked for the first time in a long time, "No, they think we've gone bat shit crazy. Dingo ate my baby crazy is on a whole new level," he explained, making light out of a dark situation.

As they approached the center of camp, where Cas and Ellen had seemed to coral the civilians, Dean found himself realizing where he knew the girl from. She was Cas' vessel's daughter. They had seen her when they tracked down Jimmy after he'd ran away. Cas almost used her as a vessel before Jimmy sacrificed himself to save her. Dean didn't know what to think. Having her around could only complicate things. If word got out that Cas was an angel, the whole camp would either ask him to fix evelrything and/or turn against him. The problem was, how do you tell a girl who's world has gone to hell to keep a secret that big?

Cas noticed Dean and Chuck approaching them, he strode over to meet them, "Dean, what's going on?"

"There was a group of people at the gates. We let them in," Chuck answered for Dean.

Cas kept his eyes trained on Dean, "Who were they?"

Dean replied this time, "A group lead by an old friend of Bobby's. Cas listen, there's one person who-"

He was cut off by Ellen, "Dean, Chuck, what happened? What was out there? Where's Bobby?"

Dean looked from Ellen to Chuck to Cas. He really needed to tell Cas that Claire was in the camp, and he needed to do it immediately, before he got carried away in the mess that telling the rest of the camp would be. He ran a hand through his hair, "Chuck, please tell Ellen what's going on. I really need to talk to Cas,"

Chuck narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Okay? Do you want me to wait for you or...?"

Dean shook his head, "No, go ahead. Ellen can help you," he grabbed Cas' elbow and lead him to somewhere more private.

"Dean, what's happening? Who was out there?"

Dean took a deep breath, "Alright. So we opened the gates and there was a group of people lead by Bobby's friend Rufus. There was a lady, another hunter, and two teenaged kids. One of the kids looked really familiar. I thought about it for a while and realized it was Claire Novak," he paused, waiting for Cas' reaction.

"As in Jimmy Novak's daughter?" Cas asked.

"The one and only,"

Cas nodded slowly, his eyes narrowed. It was obvious he was thinking, "What does this mean?"

Dean shook his head, "I have no idea. Worst case scenario, she outs you as an angel."

"That would be bad, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, that would be very freaking bad. Mark would have more of a reason to hate you. After all, we told them you were a hunter,"

"And being a hunter implies being a human,"

The was a thoughtful silence between the angel and the hunter. Both were thinking of their next step. How to handle this situation without making it worse.

Finally Cas spoke up, "We could tell her to keep it quiet,"

"Why would she listen to us? The last time she saw us we took her dad away." Dean pointed out.

Cas shook his head, "Then what do we do?"

Dean ran a hand down his face, "I have no idea,"

"Is her mother with her?"

"No, she was killed in an attack,"

"I suppose that would fuel her anger?"

Dean scoffed, "Well, I don't think it would make her love anything angel."

"Again, I ask, what do we do?"

Dean threw his hands up in defeat, "I have no idea Cas, just avoid her. Stay as far away as possible,"

Cas looked down defeatedly, he knew this could only end badly.

 **I'm so sorry. I literally took months for this chapter to come out. I absolutely dispise this chapter. It gave me such a hard time and im having an extreme case of writers block. I roughly know where I want this to go but I'm having the worst time getting from Point A to Point B. I am so sorry for the shortness and uneventfullness of this chapter. Thanks so much for reading! I will try to continue this story as best as I can. Please son't think I've been neglecting it! I love this story so much and can't wait until all of its current kinks are worked out! Until next time! -XOXO**


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